Sister Dearest
by chibimaker
Summary: Letty and everyone is back! And this time, she and Ben are out to clear the Gates' family name when a man looking for Cibola, the 'City of Gold', comes forward, saying Thomas Gates helped kill Abraham Lincoln. Sequel to Sister of Mine. Riley/OC.
1. Chapter 1

1

Letitia "Letty" Tyler Gates, one of the most renowned forensic scientists in the country for being the younger sister of Benjamin Franklin Gates, who was the finder of the famous Templar Treasure that almost every museum in the world had a little piece of, did _not_ want to get out of her bed. She glared at her alarm clock as it kept beeping again and again. She reached out and hit the snooze button, then turned over to get some more sleep. Which didn't happen, because the second she turned over, the bedroom door was opened by her boyfriend, Riley Poole.

"Letty, time to get up, hot stuff." Riley said, Letty groaned, curling up underneath the sheets.

"Don' wanna." She mumbled sleepily. Riley smiled and reached over to her shoulder, shaking it.

"You have to." He said, "It's your big thingy today, you have to go."

"It's _Ben's_ big thingy." Letty corrected, "I have no interest in learning about my great-great-grandfather's work doing something hundred and something years ago which stopped someone from blah, bla-blah, blah, blah." Riley smirked and leaned down so his mouth was next to her ear.

"I have a surprise for you if you get up." He whispered, he watched how Letty shivered slightly at the feel of his breath on her ear. He patted her shoulder twice and pulled away, "Come on, up and at 'em, beautiful." He walked out through the door before Letty could see his face and she sighed, getting out of bed and heading over to the bathroom to shower and get ready for that day. The local museum was having some kind of special occasion where they were celebrating unspoken heroes of the civil war. They called it 'Civil War Civilians' and they were having Ben come and speak to tell the story of Thomas Gates and how he thwarted the attempts of one of Lincoln's assassinators from finding some treasure that they had coded in John Wilkes Booth's diary. Personally, Letty didn't much care for a history lesson, but it was her _family_ history, and she had to attend.

She sighed as she stepped out of the shower and went over to her wardrobe, picking out her outfit for that day. She chose a sleeveless, black, V-neck top and a pair of dark grey slacks with a light blue sweater. She picked up a pair of slip-on shoes and headed into the kitchen, where she smelled the sweet scent of cinnamon.

"Something smells good." She said, walking into the living room of the condo she and Riley shared, "What'd you make?"

"Cinnamon rolls." Riley said from the kitchen, pulling out a tray of the sweet treat and putting them on the counter. Letty smiled, putting the shoes down on the couch and walking over to him, putting her arms around his neck from behind him and leaning her head on his shoulder.

"Is that my surprise?" She asked him.

"Nope." Riley turned in her arms and Letty gasped in surprise, putting her hands to his cheeks.

"You shaved!" She said in surprise, seeing the goatee Riley normally wore was gone.

"Yup." Riley said, "What do you think?" Letty pouted, her fingers rubbing his cheeks.

"I miss the beard." She said, "It made you look hot."

"But this is more professional." Riley pointed out, "I need to look good for my book signing today, don't you think?"

"You could still look professional and have a beard…" Letty said, her pout growing.

"Well, does this change your mind?" Riley asked, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her lips. When he pulled away, Letty looked at him in surprise, and then reached up to her lips.

"You don't scratch me with the beard anymore." She said, she looked over at Riley, who wiggled his eyebrows, asking for approval.

"_And_?" He asked her.

"Do it again." She said, Riley chuckled and leaned back in, kissing her once more. She wrapped her arms around his neck, returning his kisses. As they kissed, Letty pushed Riley back slightly so he was pressed up against the counter. He put his hands on the counter to find a stable place to keep his balance, and his hand touched the still hot pan that carried the cinnamon rolls. He broke the kiss, hissing in pain as he held his hand. Letty, seeing he had burned himself, took his wrist and brought him over to the sink, running his hand under cool water. She looked at him guiltily, "Sorry."

"It's fine." Riley said, "I forgot I put the pan there, so… yeah." He shrugged. He pulled his hand out from the water and surveyed the small burn, "It's nothing. A little aloe and it should be fine."

"Well… okay." Letty agreed, looking over the miniscule burn, "Do you want me to get it for you?"

"No, but," Riley smirked, "You wanna kiss it and make it better?" Letty snorted once in laughter, then brought the hand up to her lips, placing a soft kiss on his palm.

"There." She said, she reached over behind him, which made her lean forward, causing her chest to get close to Riley's, and she grabbed a cinnamon roll. She made sure her chest went up against Riley's, the skin from the V-neck top grazing his shirt. Riley gulped when she pulled away, looking at him suggestively.

"You know," His voice cracked and he cleared his throat, "My book signing isn't for another two hours…" He reached over and took a hold of her forearms in his hands, "And you don't have to be at that history thing until twelve…"

Letty glanced at the clock, seeing that it read 9:34, then looked back at Riley.

"And?" She asked him, taking a bite out of the cinnamon roll, looking at him coyly as he came closer to her, his hands wrapping around her waist and bringing her lower body against his.

"You wanna just… head back to the bedroom?" He asked, his voice becoming quieter as he leaned in to kiss her. Letty, deciding to have a little fun with him, turned away at the last second so he kissed her cheek. She pretended to think about his offer as she chewed on the bite of the cinnamon roll he had made.

"Hmm…" She tapped her finger against her chin, "Nope. I don't think so." She slipped out of his grasp and away from him into the kitchen. Riley looked at her incredulously, and then grinned deviously.

"You little _tease_!" He started running to her and Letty squealed, running away as he tried to catch her. They ran around the condo, and as they ran around the couch, Letty picked up a pillow and threw it at him. He caught it and threw it back, and soon enough, the two of them were having a pillow fight, laughing and having fun like a pair of love-struck teenagers.

As it went on, they ended up getting closer and closer to each other until Riley was able to ditch the pillows and playfully tackle her onto the couch. Letty squealed in laughter and tried to squirm out of his grip as he held her there, but he wouldn't budge. Soon, Letty and Riley's laughter died down and they stared into each other's eyes. Slowly, Riley leaned down and pressed his lips to Letty's. She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck and entangling her fingers in his hair. Riley's hands went to her waist and held her as they made out on the couch, enjoying every minute of each other's company. When their tongues got mixed up in the kiss, things became much more intense. Riley pulled away, looking down at his girlfriend beneath him. She smiled at him and he smiled back before he got up and hooked his arms under her knees and around her shoulders and picked her up, carrying her to the bedroom they shared.

After all, they both had plenty of time to spend with each other before they had to separate. Why not spend it re-living the events of the previous night?

* * *

><p><strong>Ta-da! Sequel!<strong>

**I know it's short, but it's going to be the shortest chapter in the story, I promise you. **

**I hope you likie! The rest of it goes straight into the movie.**


	2. Chapter 2

2

"…So, recapping," Ben said to his audience, "The Knights of the Golden Circle was a southern extremist group, operating in the north to subvert union forces. Had Thomas not burned the legendary missing pages from the Booth diary, the killers may have found a vast treasure of gold, and the union may well have lost the civil war. Thank you." The applause for Ben was thundering as people clapped loudly at his re-telling of the story of Thomas Gates. The curator of the museum stepped up to the podium Ben had been speaking at previously.

"I'd like to thank Ben, Letitia, and Patrick Gates." He said, calling them up onto the stage, "And say what a wonderful edition Thomas Gates is to our civilian heroes exhibit."

"Thank you, Dr. Nichols," Patrick said into the microphone, "I only wish my grandfather had been here to see this."

"Excuse me!" A voice called out from the audience, "I have a question I'd like to ask." The three Gates looked up into the balcony to see a man who was silhouetted by the lights from the stage that were shining down on the stage, calling to them, "What do you think ever happened to that Booth diary page that was pulled out of the fire?"

"We may never know." Ben said to him.

"Perhaps…" The man replied, "Perhaps not." He leaned forward and they saw that he was a man with a bald head who was in his late forties to early fifties wearing a two-piece suit, "You see, I have one of those great-great granddaddies, just like you. Way up in my family tree, name of Silas Wilkinson. He used to tell a story about the night Lincoln was shot. As Silas tells it, Booth didn't seek out Thomas Gates regarding the treasure map that night, it was _Thomas_ who called the meeting. A meeting to plan the assassination of Lincoln." Whispers broke out among the crowd.

"How absurd." Ben said.

"That's a lie!" Patrick said, angered by the fact that someone had dared to smear his grandfather's name.

The man stood up, "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you," He reached into his jacket and pulled out an old, slightly singed piece of paper that was preserved in special plastic wrap, "One of the missing pages from the infamous diary of John Wilkes Booth with the name Thomas Gates written on list, along with all the other killers." An excited murmuring broke out through the crowd. Dr. Nichols, seeing what kind of commotion this was causing, went up to the podium and politely asked everyone to vacate the room. They did so, with some reluctance. Letty couldn't blame them, after all, this man was claiming that their great-great grandfather was one of the men who helped in the assassination of President Lincoln. She'd want to know if it was true, too.

Once the crowd was gone, the man came down, and Dr. Nichols carefully placed the piece of paper underneath a projector so they could better see it on the large screen.

"And… Latin?" Dr. Nichols questioned, seeing Latin written on the page next to the names.

"Booth was a student of Latin." The man said, "He shouted _Sic simper tyrannus_ after he shot Lincoln. _'Thus always—_"

"_'Thus always the tyrants.'_" Patrick interrupted testily, "We know." He glared at the man, not exactly pleased that he was ruining their family name after it had been changed to a good name not too long ago.

"Surratt _Copiae_…" Dr. Nichols read the first name on the list aloud.

"Military supplies." The man said, "Larry Surratt was convicted and hanged for supplying Booth with a rifle and field glasses." Ben stepped closer to the projection, seeing the name Thomas Gates at the bottom next to the Latin word _Artifex_.

"Thomas Gates, _Artifex_." Letty read aloud, looking over at the man.

"Designer, or mastermind." The man said, translating the Latin for her.

"I didn't _ask_ for a translation, I know what it means." Letty said snippily.

"He must've," The man began, "Planned the assassination."

"I see…" Letty murmured, but not believing a word he said.

"Could mean mastermind of anything." Patrick replied, he went over to where the page rested and pointed out the burns along the page that cut off the rest of the paper next to Thomas's name, "See that? Burned out right there."

"I can only imagine how difficult this must be for you." The man said. Dr. Nichols stepped away from the projector.

"May I, Mister…?" He asked, trying to get past the man while also asking his name.

"Wilkinson." He said, stepping aside to let him pass by.

"I'll just see if this new page matches the Booth diary." He reached down into the special case where they had kept the Booth diary and took it out.

"This is an outrage." Patrick said, "You're calling my grandfather a liar."

"Well, with all due respect, sir," Wilkinson said, "Now _you're_ calling my great-great granddaddy a liar."

"Yes, sir, I am!" Patrick said, his voice rising, "This isn't some garbage from a history book!" Ben and Letty moved their father away from him to try and calm him down, "My grandfather told me this story himself! I saw the truth of it in his eyes!"

"I'm sorry, sir." Wilkinson said sincerely, "I truly am." They looked up to the projector where Dr. Nichols was placing the page onto the diary. They watched as the edge of the page almost seamlessly matched with one of the torn edges of the diary. Letty looked at the page in disbelief, Ben covered his mouth as well. Patrick just gaped at it, unable to believe his own eyes.

"We'll test this thoroughly, Patrick." Dr. Nichols assured, "To authenticate it."

"It can't be…" Patrick murmured.

* * *

><p>Letty and Ben watched pitifully as Patrick wandered around his house, picking up various aged trinkets from when he had searched for the Templar Treasure when he was young.<p>

"Maps to Presidents houses, keys to locks that don't exist…" He put the maps and the keys down on the desk in his study, "What's the point?" Letty felt her chest constrict painfully at the sight of her heartbroken father as he muttered to himself, "What am I looking for? …Proof. Proof, proof… What proof…?" Ben turned away and Letty quickly followed him.

"Ben," She called out to him as he went outside the door to their father's house, "Ben! Look, I get that you're upset and all—"

"Upset?" Ben echoed angrily, turning to her, "_Upset?_! Letty, I am not upset, okay? I'm—! I'm…"

"Pissed off." Letty finished for him.

"_Yes_! I am _pissed off_!" Ben said, "I mean—! I mean, how _dare_ he? After _everything_ we've been through! The entire Gates _family_ has been through! Especially you! I mean— how hard was it for you to get through college? Didn't they call you some name?"

"Ben." Letty said firmly, trying to get her brother to calm down.

"No, what was that name?" Ben asked, ignoring her as he tried to remember, "What was it? It was Letty… Letty the…" Letty sighed.

"Letty the lunatic." She said.

"Yes, Letty the lunatic." Ben said, "I mean, you had to go through all kinds of hell when you were in that forensic university."

"Ben." Letty said, Ben faced her and she sighed, "Look, I get how you feel, I really do, but what can we do about it? It's not like we can go and steal the page so no one will know." Ben looked away thoughtfully and Letty gaped at him, "You're not _seriously_ thinking of doing that, are you?"

"Well, we stole the Declaration!" Ben pointed out.

"_Ben_!" Letty smacked his shoulder, "_No_! We can't do anything about it! I mean, we could probably examine it if we get special permission or something, but not much else." Ben sighed, knowing she was right. He looked up when he suddenly thought of something.

"We don't need permission." He said, Letty looked at him confusedly.

"What do you mean?" She asked him. Ben looked over at her.

"You and Riley are sharing an apartment, right?" He asked.

"Yeah, so what?" Letty asked, wondering where he was going with this.

"Where is it?"

* * *

><p>Letty and Ben waited on the stairs of the front door of their building, waiting for Riley to come back from his book signing. Letty was concentrated on her hand-held video game as Ben was reading a book to pass the time. Soon enough, they saw Riley walking down the street, a cardboard cutout of himself and his book, as well as three boxes filled with his books, came along with him. The two Gates siblings looked up at him in surprise.<p>

"What happened to the Ferrari?" Letty asked.

"IRS impounded it." Riley said miserably.

"The IRS?" Ben repeated, wondering what his friend had done to get in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service.

"Funny story," Riley began, "My accountant set up a 'corporation'," He winked mockingly when he said this, "On an island that… didn't exist. And assured me that's how 'rich people' do it." He winked again, "I got audited, and slapped with a _huge_ fine, plus interest!" He put his cardboard cutout of himself down so he could stop carrying it, "You know what taxes are on five million dollars? Six million dollars." He sat beside Letty, making her sit in between the two of them, "But enough about me. What's new with you?"

"Well," Ben began, "My girlfriend kicked me out, I'm living with my dad…"

"And our family killed President Lincoln." Letty put in. Riley nodded once.

"All right." He said. Ben stared at his friend for a moment.

"I need your help."

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you need to break into your <em>own<em> house." Letty said as she walked beside Ben and Riley through the estate Ben had bought with Abigail not too long ago.

"I need to get Abigail's ID badge," Ben explained, "She has access to the Booth diary page."

"Why don't you just ask Abigail for help?" Riley asked as they approached the front door.

"She changed the alarm code, Riley." Ben said, "She's not gonna talk to me." Riley sighed, shaking his head as he pulled something out from his backpack.

"Alright, we have thirty seconds after the alert starts to disable the alarm." Ben reached for the doorknob and unlocked it as Riley prepared his little code-cracking device for work, "And… go." Ben opened the door, and they all heard the beeping of the alarm system going off. Riley went over to it immediately, opening it up and removing the face plate and plugging in different cords in different spots.

"So, I'll probably regret asking this," Riley said, "But what happened with you and Abigail?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering that, too." Letty said, leaning against the rail of the stairs as she and Ben waited for Riley to stop the alarm.

"I don't know." Ben said, "You know, I don't know. She started using the word 'so' a lot."

"So?" Letty questioned, wondering what was so bad about that.

"Yeah, like, 'So, I guess my opinion doesn't matter', 'So, you seem to _always_ know what's best', '_So_, I guess I'm invisible'." Ben said, thinking his sister had asked about how she used the word so, not asking how the word so was a bad thing, "So, now I've moved out, and we're dividing to furniture."

The alarm system beeped as Riley cracked the code and put the face plate back on the alarm system.

"Women…" He sighed, "Can't live with 'em," He turned to Ben, "Especially if they change the alarm codes." Ben looked at his watch.

"You did that in twenty five seconds." He said. Riley looked over at Letty, who crossed her arms and quirked her eyebrow at him.

"Uh, I-I didn't mean that I can't live with _you_!" Riley said quickly, seeing how she wasn't pleased with his statement, "I can live with you. I can't live _without_ you." He came over to her and tried to kiss her, but was stopped by Letty's hand.

"Save it, Riley." She said, she smirked, "I get where you're coming from." Riley sighed in relief.

"You have _got_ to stop messing with me like that." He said, Letty giggled as she followed her brother.

"But, Ben, I also see where Abigail is coming from, too." Letty said as she went up the stairs after her brother, "I mean, you _do_ always think you're right. A _lot_."

"That's because I _am_ right, Letty." Ben replied, going into Abigail's study and over to her desk.

"But there are some things you and Abigail need to work on together. Like a couple." Letty said as Ben opened up one of the desk drawers. "Trust me, I speak from _years_ of experience living with you." Ben grabbed Abigail's ID card from the drawer.

"Got it." He said.

"Okay, let's _go_!" Riley said, more than ready to get out of the house. They all froze when they heard the sound of a car coming up the drive way, and saw headlights flashing through the windows. Ben went over to the window and looked at the car that was coming up.

"That's not Abigail's car." He said, he watched as a man came out the driver's side and went over to where Abigail was as she opened up the passenger side door, "She's on a date." Ben didn't sound very happy at the notion of his ex-girlfriend being on a date with another man.

"I thought she'd wait at _least_ another week." Letty said, she blinked as she recognized the man, "Hey, isn't that that guy? The White house guy?" Riley chuckled a little as he stumbled around his words, trying to set up another date with Abigail.

"He's weird." He said. Ben suddenly moved away from the window and Riley and Letty followed him down the stairs, moving fast as they heard Abigail and her date approaching the front door.

"Wow, you work in a museum, and you live in one." Abigail's date said, and Abigail laughed at his words.

"Wow, what clever repartee." Riley said sarcastically, knowing she was faking it, "She must really like him." They moved quickly down the stairs, Riley and Letty hiding behind a wall while Ben picked up a cardboard box as Abigail came in, about to comment about how weird it was her door was unlocked and he walked into the room, making it look like he had just seen them come in.

"Oh. Abigail." Ben greeted her.

"What are you doing here?" Abigail asked.

"Just… needed to get some things." Ben said, gesturing to the box in his hands. Ben nodded at Abigail's date, "Connor, good to see you again."

"Gates." Connor greeted, a bit awkwardly.

"…How'd you get in, Ben?" Abigail asked him. When Ben didn't reply, she sighed and shouted out, "Riley! Come out here! And Letty, I know you're here, too!" Riley and Letty came out from their hiding place and smiled at Abigail.

"Hey, Abby!" Letty greeted warmly, as if they hadn't broken into her house.

"Hey!" Riley said, "What are you doing here? I mean, it's your house, but… Hey, I sent you a copy of my book, did you get a chance to—?"

"No, I haven't read it yet." Abigail interrupted. Riley shrugged off the injury to his ego and smiled at Connor.

"Hey, I know you." He walked up the stairs to shake his hand, "You're the White House Curator. I'm Riley, we met."

"Oh, right!" Connor said, recognizing him from a presidential dinner he, Ben, Letty, and Patrick had been invited to shortly after they found the Templar Treasure, "You're Ben's assistant."

"What?" Riley asked, he was ignored as Connor smiled at Letty.

"Hello, Miss Gates." He said, waving at her, "Nice to see you again."

"Hi, Connor." Letty said, waving back awkwardly. She had never really liked Connor, he seemed very creepy to her. She wasn't sure if it was the black suit he always wore, or the way he took himself so seriously, but he did scare her a little bit.

"I think you should go now." Abigail said awkwardly.

"You sure?" Connor asked as she led him to the door.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about this." She said.

"So, dinner? Tomorrow night?" Connor asked once they got to the door.

"Oh, I… I actually already have plans for tomorrow." Abigail said apologetically.

"Oh, you do?" Ben asked, not very happy at the idea. Abigail sent him a look to shut him up.

"Of course you do." Connor said.

"But, I'm free on Friday." Abigail said, smiling at him.

"Awkward~." Riley said quietly.

"Oh, great." Connor said, he leaned in and kissed Abigail's cheek, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." Abigail said, once he shut the door, she turned to Ben, "I can_not_ believe you broke in!" She walked down the stairs towards him, "What'd you take?"

"Just my things!" Ben lied as Abigail took the box from him. She held out her hand.

"Hand it over Ben." She ordered, Ben sighed and put the ID card in her hands.

"I need to see the Booth Diary page." He said.

"You saw the page yourself!" Abigail said, "There _is_ no treasure map on it!"

"It's a cipher leading _to_ a treasure map," Ben corrected, Abigail sighed in annoyance, "Did anyone spectral image the page?"

"No need to." Abigail said, walking past him, "The ink writing on the page is clearly visible."

"It could have been erased, or faded!" Ben said, he, Riley, and Letty following her, "You're the director of document conservation! You know all this!"

"It's not up to me." Abigail said, "It's not my department."

"That department reports to your department!" Letty said, "Abby, come on! Just _one_ look under infrared?" Abigail kept walking while Letty and Ben had stopped. Letty let out a long sigh of disappointment.

"You can have the Boston tea tables." Ben offered. Abigail stopped walking and turned around.

"Both of them?" She asked, knowing Ben might keep one for himself if she didn't ask. Ben sighed.

"Yes, both of them." Ben said, Abigail smiled.

"Okay then."

* * *

><p><strong>It's a little shorter than usual, but I thought this was a good place to end the chapter.<strong>

**I'm sorry it's not out sooner, I've been getting LAZY. **

**Also, I have ACT prep courses, so... yeah.**

**Hope you like it!**


	3. Chapter 3

3

Riley sighed as he looked at the page on the screen, "We've been looking at this page for hours. There's nothing there." Ben sighed, rubbing his eyes with one hand.

"Ben, I really don't think we're gonna find anything on this page." Abigail said.

"Well, look at it this way," Riley put in, trying to cheer up Ben and Letty, who looked very miserable, "In a hundred years, no one's ever gonna remember anyone involved in the Lincoln assassination besides Booth."

"That's not true," Ben said, "Do you know the expression 'his name is mud'?"

"Yes, of course." Riley replied.

"You do? Do you know the origin of the expression?" Ben asked.

"Does _anyone_ but you?" Letty asked.

"Dr. Samuel _Mud_ was convicted of being a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination." Ben said, "The evidence was circumstantial, he was later pardoned, but it didn't matter. Mud's name still lives in infamy and I will not let Thomas Gates' name be mud." Letty squinted her eyes slightly as she noticed something on the page.

"Ben, look at this." She pointed to a small, oddly-shaped smudge on the page, "See that?" Ben nodded.

"Oh, that's quite something, isn't it?" Ben said.

"Yeah, it's a _smudge_." Riley said sarcastically. Letty rolled her eyes and lightly hit his shoulder. "Hey!" Riley's hand went to where she had hit him, "Just saying. It's nothing."

As the machine continued to scan the page, they saw the smudge look like the backwards form of two letters, X and Z.

"Residual ink from the facing page, flip it." Ben said, Abigail pressed a few keys on the computer and the page flipped over, showing a group of pairs of different letters put together, "The letters are backwards. It's a cipher."

"Yes!" Letty said happily.

"See, how the letters are coupled?" Ben asked, pointing to them.

"Uh-huh." Abigail said, happy about the new discovery.

"Playfair ciphers encode letters in pairs!" Ben said, "_This_ could prove his story."

"Unless you decode the cipher," Abigail said, "This does not prove your theory."

"No, that's okay." Ben said, "All we need is a five letter keyword."

"What's the keyword?" Riley asked excitedly.

"…I don't know yet." Ben replied.

"All right." Riley replied, acting not in the least bit surprised.

"Abby, can we get a printout of this?" Letty asked. Abigail nodded and pressed a few keys, getting the printer to make a copy of what they saw on the screen.

"There's a billion words in the English language," Riley said, "There's gotta be a logical— let's start at the beginning. AR, uh, aardvark?" Abigail got up from her chair to get the printout.

"You know, I don't want to rain on your parade, here, Ben," She began, "But I don't think this is going to stop Dr. Nichols from announcing the discovery of the page tomorrow."

"No, no, wait," Ben said quickly, walking over to her, "Can't you just… just ask him to wait until I prove Thomas is innocent?"

"_We_, Ben." Letty corrected as she looked over the cipher.

"Sorry, until _we_ prove Thomas is innocent?" Ben asked.

"What if he isn't innocent?" Abigail asked. Ben said nothing, unable to answer her question. Letty chewed on her bottom lip unsurely as she pondered the question as well. What if Thomas Gates wasn't innocent? What if he really did help in Lincoln's assassination? Their family name would go down through the toilet again, which would just make the scars that had finally closed up from all that time open up again. Letty sighed and released her bottom lip from her teeth. She would just have to cross that bridge when she came to it, right now, she just had to focus on proving her great-great-grandfather's innocence and hope for the best.

Abigail took the copy from the printer and handed it to Ben, walking out of the room, and waiting for everyone to follow her, because no one could be in that room after hours.

* * *

><p>Letty sighed as she stood in the elevator, holding a small box of vialed substances in her hands. After she had set up her laboratory in DC not too long ago, she began working with the authorities again, specifically a few members of the FBI. Agent Sadusky had been a regular customer for her, giving her some samples, but refusing to tell her about the case they went to. She didn't mind, after all, it <em>is<em> the FBI. They need to keep their cases secret from civilians, for the most part. The doors opened up and she walked through, planning to go straight to Agent Sadusky's office to report her findings on the different samples he had given her.

On her way there, she saw two agents go in before her, but didn't seem to notice her presence as she stepped into Sadusky's office behind them.

"Sir," One said, holding up a newspaper, "Looks like our old friend Ben Gates is in the news again." Letty tried to move around the two agents, but was somehow stuck behind them, unable to go past.

"What'd he find now? Atlantis?" Sadusky asked with a laugh.

"A guy came forward with a missing Booth diary page." The first agent said, looking over the article in the newspaper.

"But that's not even the best part," The other agent said, "Listen to this." She nudged the other agent to get him to read the article.

"_On the page are the names of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination,_" The agent read aloud, "_As well as a previously unknown conspirator, Thomas Gates. Thomas Gates is said to be the great-great-grandfather of renowned treasure hunter, Benjamin Franklin Gates._" The two agents walked forward, giving Letty a chance to move, but they went directly in front of Sadusky's desk, and she couldn't get past them again to get into Sadusky's field of vision. The first agent handed the paper to Sadusky so he could read over the article.

"And I thought _my_ relatives were bad." The second agent joked. Letty, not liking how they were bagging on her family name, decided to make herself known among the FBI agents.

"_A-__**hem**_!" She cleared her throat loudly, and they all turned to look at her, and she gave them a false, friendly smile. "Hi."

"Hello… Miss Gates…" The second agent said awkwardly, just realizing that she was there.

"What do we know about this…Wilkinson?" Sadusky asked, looking over the article and ignoring the now-awkward air around him.

"Sir?" The first agent asked in confusion. Sadusky looked up from the paper at him.

"Guy claims he had this page for a hundred and forty years, and just suddenly comes forward with it?" Sadusky said pointedly. The two agents nodded wordlessly, unable to give him a better answer, "Why?"

"We'll look into it." The first agent said, Sadusky smiled.

"Better." He replied, the two agents walked out, and Letty stayed behind, still holding the vialed samples in her hand. She smiled at Sadusky, who smiled back as he put the paper on his desk. "Miss Gates."

"Agent Sadusky," Letty replied in greeting as she put the samples down on his desk, "I finished running those tests you asked for." She pointed to two rows of vials, "Samples one through six came back positive as human blood, and everything else came back as different species of animals."

"Animals like…?" Sadusky egged, picking up one of the animal blood samples and looking at it curiously.

"Bears, wolves, and even a _tiger_," Letty said, listing off some of what she found, "It's pretty weird. I don't know what kind of case you're working on, but I hope it doesn't have to do with someone getting mauled."

"It doesn't." Sadusky assured as he put the sample down. He looked up at her, "So, how are you dealing with this Thomas Gates thing?"

"Ben and I are working to prove his innocence." Letty said, "We found a few interesting things on that page that'll help us."

"Well, good luck with that." Sadusky said as he pulled himself out of his seat and picked up the samples, "I'll get these down to the guys working the case."

"'Kay." Letty said, stepping aside so he could get out, "You ever think about getting a bigger office?"

"Only every single day." Sadusky replied, making Letty laugh as she walked out of his office.

* * *

><p>Letty shut the door behind her as she entered her father's house.<p>

"Ben! I'm here!" She hollered as she adjusted the strap of her purse and walked in through to the living room.

"We're in the dining room!" Ben called back, directing his sister to where he and Riley were. She walked in just as Riley typed in the word bacon into a decoder program on his laptop. It didn't get the results they wanted.

"What's your progress on the keyword?" Letty asked, putting her purse down next to the laptop.

"We went through all possible five letter words starting with A." Riley said in a mockingly happy tone, "And so far, we have made _zero_ progress!" Letty cooed mockingly as she ruffled her boyfriend's hair.

"Ooh, poor baby." He moved her hand away in annoyance as he typed in the word baron into his program. Letty giggled at his bad mood, and leaned down, kissing his cheek, "Better?"

"A little bit." Riley said, he smirked slyly, "I'd feel better if you did the other cheek, too." Letty laughed and kissed his other cheek. Ben rolled his eyes at their show of affection.

"Could you not do that in front of me?" Ben asked, "It's weird to see my sister making out with my best friend."

Letty looked over at him, wrapping her arms around Riley's shoulders, bending down at a 90 degree angle to do so, "You're just jealous that you don't have anyone to make out with." Ben rolled his eyes and looked away as Letty hugged Riley's neck, snuggling into it a little bit before pulling away, "By the way, how's dad doing?" She leaned against Riley's chair. She knew that Dr. Nichols had announced the new page today, and she was pretty sure her father wasn't happy about it. Ben looked over at his father's study, then back at Riley.

"Keep working." He ordered, and walked around them to go in. Letty let out a sad sigh and pulled up a chair beside Riley, watching as he worked.

Ben walked into his father's study, seeing him watching a video on his laptop, and from the audio that he could hear, he knew he was watching a video of Dr. Nichols announcing the page's discovery.

"Nichols has bought into it." Patrick said when Ben walked in, "You see this?"

"Dad, would you stop watching that?" Ben asked, coming in and sitting in the chair across the one from his father's desk.

"It's on the internet." Patrick said, "There's no stopping it now." Patrick reached over and hit a key, making the audio shut off from the video. "They have no understanding."

"_You_ know the truth." Ben said, "That's all that matters. You heard the story from Grandpa Charles."

"The _story_." Patrick said, repeating Ben's words to make a point, "This guy's got evidence, got everything. We have a story, we have nothing." He sighed, "For one brief moment, the Gates family could hold its head up! Now, we're a bunch of crazies."

"But we're not liars." Ben said, Patrick looked at his son hopelessly, "Look, Wilkinson is saying that Thomas Gates was a _'mastermind'_ in one of the darkest hours in US history, and he burned the diary page to cover that up? And you and I both know he burned the page to keep Booth's men from finding the treasure! And that's what we're gonna prove. There's only one way to prove it."

"You have to find the treasure." Patrick said.

"You gotta find it!" Ben said, "And you're gonna _help_ me find it. So, come on," Ben leaned forward, "Let's hear the story again, from Grandpa Charles."

Patrick let out a long breath of air, thinking of the story he had heard from before and repeated to Ben and Letty when they were younger, "Grandpa… heard his father say 'treasure map'… Then, there was a commotion—"

"Yeah, I got all that." Ben said, interrupting him. "Was there anything after that? Anything he said? Something he did? Anything at all?" Patrick seemed to think for a moment, and then his eyes lit up as a certain part of the story came to his mind.

"Wait a minute…" He muttered.

"What?" Ben asked, anxious to find a clue to help them with the cipher.

Patrick leaned forward and held out his hand, "He took his son's hand…" Ben did as he was asking, taking his father's hand, "He looked him in the eye and said, with his dying breath, 'the debt that all men pay'."

"The debt that all men pay?" Ben repeated.

"The debt that _Thomas_ paid." Patrick said pointedly, he saw his son grin.

"Well, that's five letters." He got up and Patrick, curious as to what was happening, followed him as he went into the dining room where Letty and Riley were, "Try death!"

"What?" Riley and Letty asked confusedly at the same time.

"It's the key code," Ben said, "The debt that all men pay is death." Riley, not one to try to argue with Ben's logic, typed the word death into the program on his computer.

"Alright…" Riley read off the letters as they appeared on screen, "L, A, B, O, U, L… Uh…" There was a blank between the first six letters and the last four, so he wasn't sure what he said, "Lab-ooh… La bull… L-Labull…" He sighed, "It's gibberish."

"Laboulaye." Letty said, seeing how the letters spelled the name.

"Laboulaye." Patrick repeated, seeing how it was the name.

"Laboulaye!" Riley said happily, then he turned to Letty, "What is that?"

"It's a who," Ben said, "Edward Laboulaye. Where's the phone?"

"I don't know, son." Patrick said, looking around, "I can't find anything in this mess."

"It's temporary until I find a new place." Ben said, going around all his belongings to look for the house phone.

"Find the old one!" Patrick said as Ben ran off to the study, "I like her!"

Letty sighed, looking over at the computer screen, "There's another word, though…" Riley looked at the screen, seeing the next word was cut off.

"Yeah…" He said, "L, A, D… something."

"I found it!" Ben hollered from the study as he found the phone. He dialed in Abigail's number and waited until she answered it.

"Hey, what?" She said.

"We cracked the cipher." Ben said, "It's Laboulaye, the cipher spells Laboulaye."

"So… Laboulaye was well known in France." Abigail said, "It could be nothing."

"Or maybe there was a treasure map like _Thomas Gates_ said there was!" Ben said, coming back into the dining room with the phone still to his ear, "And Laboulaye had it." He looked at the screen, seeing the other word, "We got a partial on the next word. L, A, D. Lad, ladder…"

"L, A, D…" Abigail murmured.

"Aladdin?" Riley suggested.

"Lady." Abigail said.

"_Thank you_, Abigail." Ben said, "Laboulaye Lady." He walked away and started moving into the kitchen, "Do you know what Laboulaye was planning right around the time Lincoln was assassinated?"

"Okay, Ben, I've gotta go." Abigail said, her voice quiet, Ben didn't seem to hear.

"There's a_ map_, or a clue _to_ a map on the Statue—!" He was cut off as Abigail hung up the phone. He looked back at everyone, "She hung up!"

"Well, when you're on one of your rants, who wouldn't?" Letty asked.

"At least she took your call." Patrick said, "That was good."

"It's fine, it's fine…" Ben said, putting the phone down on the kitchen counter.

"Wait, hang on a second," Riley said, "Isn't Laboulaye the guy who did the Statue of Liberty?"

"Yeah, same guy." Ben said.

"Are you saying that there's a _treasure map_ on the Statue of Liberty?" Riley asked with a shocked smile as he came into the kitchen, Letty behind him.

"Laboulaye was a Mason." Patrick said, "They built clues into everything."

"Did you learn that from my book?" Riley asked, Patrick gave him a dry look and he looked away, "…Never mind."

"So," Letty said, clearing the awkward air between her boyfriend and her father, "The only question now is _which_ Statue of Liberty."

"Exactly." Riley said, "…Is there more than one?" He looked at all three of the Gates family members.

"There are _three_, actually, Riley." Patrick said, "One is in New York, one in the Luxembourg garden…"

"And one is in Paris." Letty put in.

"But he only referred to _one_ as his lady." Ben said.

* * *

><p>Letty watched as Riley maneuvered the small helicopter that had a camera attached to it as he flew it around the Lady of Liberty, Laboulaye's Lady, in Paris, France.<p>

"This is… like, impossible, what you're doing." Ben said as he watched the helicopter move around.

"Glad you're enjoying it." Riley said, concentrating on the copter.

"Laboulaye had to leave a clue _somewhere_ on this thing." Letty said as she looked at the small screen on Riley's control panel, so far, they had come up with nothing. "Try the torch. Move in on the torch."

"Let me get there…" Riley said, carefully using the joysticks on the controller.

"Closer…" Ben said, watching the screen.

"It's not as easy as it looks." Riley said.

"No, I— Believe me, I know that." Ben said.

"_Excusez-moi, monsieur_," A voice called in French. Ben and Letty looked back to see two French policemen on a pair of bikes, "_Pourriez-vous vastant?_"

Ben and Letty shared a glance before walking over to them.

"Excuse me, officers, can we help you?" Ben asked as they went over.

"Ahh, Americans." One of the policemen said in English and a very thick accent, "Of course, you see no problem in disturbing _everyone's_ pleasant morning with your _buzzing_, there." He gestured to the helicopter that Riley moved around the torch. Letty looked at the helicopter, then back at the policeman.

"Hey, do you know how much our constitution was influenced by your guy, Montesquieu?" She asked, diverting him off-topic.

The policeman looked at her in a quizzical surprise, "You know Montesquieu?" Letty nodded. The other policeman, who apparently didn't speak English, asked the other what they were talking about, and Letty was only able to make out bits and pieces of their French, but she knew he had told the other that they were talking about Montesquieu.

"_Oui_, Montesquieu!" She said, "Our founding fathers believed that a government should be set up so that," She and the officer quoted the line at the same time, "'No man need be afraid of another.'"

"Got it." Riley muttered, getting a picture of some French words that he had found on the torch.

"That's very good." The policeman said.

"Well, I've been learning a little bit of history that goes with the language, so…" Letty shrugged sheepishly.

"You speak French?" The police man asked, Letty nodded, she held up her thumb and forefinger to demonstrate how much French she spoke.

"_Seul petit. Très rompu._" She said in French, making the policeman laugh, "I was here for about… three months on vacation. I _had_ to learn."

"It's not bad." The policeman said, Letty smiled.

"Thank you. _Merci_." She said.

"Guys! Guys!" Riley said as he rushed over to them, helicopter in his hands, "I got it!" He handed them the controller, which had a picture of the words, "I hope you read French." Letty looked over it, not recognizing most of the words.

"May I?" The policeman offered, Letty looked up at him and handed it to him.

"Go ahead." She said, Riley looked between her and the policeman.

"Letty, he's a _cop_." He whispered at her pointedly.

"Riley, he's a cop on a _bike_." Letty whispered back.

"Um, _'across the sea, these twins stand…'_" He and the other officer had a little trouble translating the next word, "_'resolute to preserve what we are looking for.' _Laboulaye, 1876." He handed the controller back to Riley.

"It's a clue." Riley said, he and Letty looked over at Ben to see if he could decipher it.

"_'These twins stand resolute'_. Let's see…" He began to pace as he thought, "Resolute twins… _resolute_… resolute… And then, twins! …Siamese twins…" Letty looked at her brother dubiously at the mention of Siamese twins, "Siam… Trade routes between France and Thailand!"

"Ben, really?" Letty asked, "I don't think it has anything to do with _Siamese_ twins."

"You're right, you're right." Ben said, "That's ridiculous…" He went back to thinking, leaning against a metal pole that supported a large bridge they were all standing under. "HMS Resolute!" They all jumped at his sudden words, "A British ship that got lost in the arctic in the 1800's. It was salvaged by American wailers then congress sent it back to England. When the ship was finally retired, Queen Victoria had two desks made from its timbers. _Voila_: resolute twins."

"And… where are those desks now?" The policeman asked.

"I think…" Letty murmured, "I know those desks, the closest one is in London." She looked over at her boyfriend, "Riley, how fast can we get to Buckingham Palace?"

Riley shrugged, "If we drive, it'll be about… five hours. If we take a plane, about three."

The policeman who spoke English said something in French to the other one. Letty was able to make out the word 'taxi' in their exchange of words. He turned to them and smiled, "He's going to call you a cab."

"Oh, thank you, _merci beaucoup_." She said, the policeman nodded at her with a smile. He looked over at Riley, looking at the helicopter in his hands.

"Nice helicopter. Is that yours?" He asked.

"Yes, actually, it is." Riley said.

"Okay, so you get the ticket." The policeman said, reaching into a pocket and pulling out a small notebook.

"Ha, ha!_ Great_!" Riley said sarcastically.

* * *

><p><strong>I'm sorry it took so long! I've been very, very lazy recently, and my school assignments have been piling up recently.<strong>

**I hope you don't hate me, or the story for it! **

**TT-TT**


	4. Chapter 4

**I'm sorry this took so long! I've been very lazy lately and my friends and I are planning this whole thing for an anime convention in April, and I got other junk to do because I'm a senior leader, and it's my job to make sure stuff like fun-days are planned and working out okay.**

**But you don't want to hear about my rambles, you want to read!**

**So, here you go! Enjoy!**

* * *

><p><span>4<span>

Letty watched as Riley went over the schematics for Buckingham Palace at the hotel she, Riley, and ben were staying at. He pointed to a red highlighted section of the palace, "So, the queen's office is here. The elevator shaft gets you close, but the only direct access is through security."

"Well, that should be exciting." Ben said sarcastically.

"Yeah, we gotta get you in that room…" Riley said, typing away on the computer. Letty jumped up when her cellphone began to ring and she picked it up when she saw the caller ID.

"Hi, Dad." She said.

"The house was broken into last night!" Patrick said, "I was attacked!"

"Okay, call the police, I'm coming home." Ben and Riley looked back at her.

"What happened?" Ben asked.

"Someone broke into the house and attacked Dad." She said, moving her mouth away from the phone.

"What good would that do?" Patrick asked, "They didn't take anything, and besides, I'm fine."

"Okay…" Letty said slowly, "Well, um, we're in London, we're going to Buckingham Palace. We have an appointment with the curator tomorrow afternoon."

"Okay, well, just be careful." Patrick said, "And make sure Ben is too."

"I will, Dad." Letty said, "Bye."

"Bye." Patrick hung up the phone and Letty looked back at her brother, letting out a long stream of air.

"Someone else is after the treasure." She said.

"Of course someone else is after the treasure," Riley said, "It's the _axiom_ of treasure hunting."

"We have to hurry and see that desk." Ben said.

"Yeah, don't want to miss that appointment." Riley said sarcastically, eying Letty.

"Hey, you want to tell my Dad we're breaking into the queen's study, be my guest." She replied, pointing a finger at him.

* * *

><p>The next day, the three of them went to Buckingham Palace, having gotten special permission to go in earlier yesterday. Once inside, Riley conspicuously dispersed from their little group and headed into the men's room, where he set up his own miniature tech central to help Ben and get into the queen's study. As they headed up the stairs, away from the crowds, Ben took out two small, velvet boxes from his pocket and handed one to Letty, keeping the other for himself. Inside them were earpieces for Riley to communicate with them. Letty pulled out a small bottle of wine and opened it. Ben looked at her curiously when she handed him the bottle.<p>

"An explanation as to why you get in." She said, telling him they would think he was drunk. Ben gave a small 'ah' in understanding and did the same as she had done. As they walked back down the stairs, having their plan all set, they ran into someone they didn't think they would find.

"Ben, Letty!" Abigail said when she saw them.

"Abby!" Letty said in surprise.

"Abigail." Ben said.

"Abigail?" Riley said over the earpieces. "What's she doing here?"

"What are you doing here?" Ben asked

"Your dad called me," Abigail explained, "Said your next clue was here."

"She's really there?" Riley asked.

"Um…" Letty moved away, "I'm just gonna… give you guys a little private time." She walked away from them and into the crowd, planning to wait among the crowd for Ben and Riley when they were finished.

"Look, Ben," Abigail said, putting her hand on his arm, "I want to help."

"Drop her. Lose her." Riley ordered.

"Well, that's very nice, but it's kind of a bad time right now." Ben said.

Abigail looked taken aback, "A bad time right now?"

"It's a bad time." Ben said.

"Okay…" Abigail laughed in disbelief, "I just… flew all the way to London to offer my help, and now you say, you just… don't need it."

"Ben, remember the plan." Riley said.

"You're the one who's making a scene right now." Ben said, lowering his voice.

"I—! I am _not_ the one making a scene right now!" Abigail said incredulously.

"No, Ben, we _want_ to make a scene." Letty said over her microphone.

"Well, then FINE! If that's what you want, then let's _have it out right now!_" Ben shouted, getting everyone's attention.

"_Ah_, so subtle." Riley said, Letty snickered a little bit.

"Ben, what are you—" Ben cut Abigail off.

"Oh, let me guess!" He shouted, "It's the _wrong time_! It's the _wrong place_! I'm _wrong again_!" Letty had to hold back her laughs as Ben marched down the stairs with big, exaggerated steps and waving his arms, "_Wrong_ about _us_! _Wrong _about _Thomas Gates_! _Wrong_ to think you'd like the queen iron chair!"

"You're wrong to _assume_ I'd like the chair!" Abigail shouted back.

"You _see?_!" Ben moved over to a small crowd, "You see everybody? This is more interesting than that," He put his arm around a random, confused person, "She thinks that even when I'm right, I'm _wrong_! Isn't that right?" Abigail looked around at the crowd as Ben kept speaking, "Abigail, _just_ because I answer a question quickly doesn't make it wrong!"

"Not if the _right_ answer is something we need to figure out together, AS A COUPLE!" Abigail said as she came down the stairs towards him, "That's what couples _do_, Ben!" A security guard came up to Ben's shoulder.

"Sir, you and the missus need to take it outside." He said.

"Oh, _now_ look what you've done." Ben said, "You've brought the little… _Bobbies_ down on us!" He turned to the guard, "_You_ take the missus outside. I'm stayin' right here." Suddenly, Ben jumped up and mounted the railing for the stairs and started sliding down on it with a "_Whee!_"

"Ben!" Abigail cried in disbelief. Ben was stopped when a guard came up behind him.

"Good afternoon, sir." He greeted pleasantly, even though the aura he gave off was far from pleasant.

"_'Ello_." Ben greeted in a cheesy British accent. Letty snorted behind her hand. The guard leaned in and smelled the wine on Ben's breath.

"Been drinking, have we?" He asked.

"Just a nip!" Ben said, "Just popped down to the pub for a pint! Bit of _all right_! Going to arrest a man for that? Going to detain a blighter for enjoying his whis-_key_?"

"It's alright, sir, that's enough." The guard said. Ben, realizing he wasn't going to detain him, decided to do a different tactic.

"Beggars and mash!" Ben blurted.

"Sir?" The guard asked confusedly.

"Bozzlesquid!" Ben said.

"What?" The guard asked.

"Smoked eel pie!" Ben said.

"Sir?" The guard asked, his tone showing that he was becoming very aggravated at Ben's mocking of the English people.

"HAGGIS!" Ben shouted.

"_That's_ it!" The guard snarled out, "Dismount the banister!" He grabbed Ben's arm and another guard got Abigail and dragged them to the detainee room. As they went, Abigail was yelling at Ben, and Ben was singing a song about coconuts.

"That. Was. Brilliant." Riley praised once they were out of the Buckingham palace foyer. "Okay, Letty, get down there and get to security."

"Got it." Letty said, inconspicuously following them, carrying a small, tubular device in her hands as they headed towards the security detaining room. Once she was at the entrance, but fifty feet away from the security camera displays, Letty stuck the small device on the doorframe at the very bottom where it wouldn't be noticed and walked away, "Is that close enough?"

"It's perfect." Riley said. They both could still hear Ben and Abigail arguing until they got down to the detaining room, going through a metal detector before being brought in.

"What's wrong with being right?" Ben asked Abigail as she went through.

"Nothing," Abigail said, "You should try it some time."

"Oh, so what you're saying?" Ben asked as he went through, "Are you saying I'm never right?"

"I didn't say that." Abigail said.

"_Oooh_! So I'm wrong again!" Ben said in a mocking voice.

"Ah, now, see, _there_ you are correct!" Abigail said.

"Oh, capital." Ben said in his cheesy British accent, "Topper!"

The guard led them to the detaining room, scanning an ID card to unlock the door, getting very annoyed with Ben and Abigail's constant bickering.

"Why don't you make a list of what's okay for me to say." Ben said as he walked in after Abigail.

"_Because_! Every time we go on vacation," Abigail argued, "We talk about what is _right_ or _wrong_!"

"OY!" The guard shouted to get them to be quiet, "You two lovebirds stay put, alright?"

"No! No, no, no! DON'T LEAVE ME IN HERE, MATE!" Ben shouted, he went right up to the metal fence-like wall surrounding the small room, and his close proximity to it caused Letty and Riley's ear buds to ring loudly.

"Ben!" Letty snapped as she waited outside the men's room for Riley.

"Sorry." Ben said quickly.

"What is going on?" Abigail asked.

"I'm sorry for getting you roped into this," Ben said, turning around to face her, "But you were _excellent_ back there!" Abigail smiled at his compliment.

"Thank you." Abigail said, "So were you."

"When did you figure out it was a fake argument?" Ben asked.

"When did you figure out I was really _arguing_ during the fake argument?" Abigail asked.

"Right in the middle there, the part where," He made quotation marks with his fingers, "'I always assume that I'm right'." He turned away slightly, "Riley get us out of here." He turned back to Abigail, fully engaged in their conversation, "Which I don't get. Because I turn out to be right after I assume that I'm right, that I'm correct, yes?"

"When you get to a conclusion without asking and you _happen_ to be right," Abigail said, "You got lucky."

Ben pondered her words for a moment before saying, "…I get lucky a _lot_."

"So, where does that leave me, Ben?" Abigail asked.

"You guys are _so_ great together." Riley said sarcastically as he hacked into the security system.

"So, you wanna know why I'm here." Ben said, more a statement than a question. Abigail nodded and he leaned down so he would whisper in her ear, "I think there may be a clue on the resolute desk in the queen's study." He laughed a little at the end and pulled away, "Does that help?"

"I just don't understand why it's so difficult for you to include others in your decisions." Abigail said, "Just because you may know what my answer's going to be, doesn't mean you don't have to ask me."

"Door number one: opening." Riley said, finishing his hacking. Ben and Abigail walked towards it, Ben going first. He stopped halfway and turned back to Abigail.

"Okay, let me try this out," He said, seeing how Abigail rolled her eyes, "Abigail, would you like to come with me, please?"

"Yes, thank you." Abigail said.

"Ridiculous," Ben replied instantly, "You're staying here, it's too dangerous." He walked through, letting Abigail walk out after him.

"I am _so_ coming." Abigail said, following him.

"Door number two." Ben said, approaching the second door.

"Door two, coming up." Riley said, hacking into the system again and unlocking the door. When Abigail went to open the door, Ben held out his arm to stop her.

"You're not coming." He said.

"I'll call security." Abigail threatened, pushing open the door.

"You should be near a service elevator." Riley said, Ben looked around, past some flowers in vases that were supposed to replace the flowers on display all throughout Buckingham Palace. Ben picked up one of the vases and Abigail looked at him curiously.

"What are you doing?" She asked him, "Are those for the queen?"

"Queen's not here," Ben said, "There's no flag flying." He reached up with his foot and hit a button for the service elevator, making it come down to their level. "Queen's at Windsor." He opened up the elevator and carefully climbed in so as not to damage the flowers.

"What are you doing, Ben?" Abigail asked when she saw him go in.

"I'm going to see the desk without you, bye-bye." Ben said quickly, starting to shut the elevator door. Abigail reached out and stopped it from shutting.

"No." She said.

"No, no, don't let her go." Riley said.

"Abigail, I…" Ben trailed off when he heard the door down the hall open and shut as someone was coming in. "Alright, get in, get in, _get in_!" Abigail quickly climbed in next to Ben and Ben gave her the flowers as he pushed a button on the wall outside the elevator and closed the doors before the person could see them. Ben sighed in relief once they successfully escaped, "Can you give me the flowers back, please?"

"Yeah." Abigail returned the flowers to him and he held it in front of the service elevator window so no one would see the two of them in the elevator together. Ben's face suddenly changed to curiosity as he peeked his head over the flowers and looked at Abigail. "What?"

"You're wearing the perfume I bought you." Ben said, smelling the familiar scent.

"…So?" Abigail asked, her eyes shifting away from Ben in embarrassment. She didn't think he would notice…

"So, I think it smells kind of pretty." Ben whispered. Abigail rolled her eyes.

"It's the flowers, Ben." She said.

"No, it's not~." Ben sang softly, Abigail smiled to herself and shook her head. The elevator came to a stop, "Let's go." Abigail reached out and opened the elevator doors and climbed out before Ben and they walked around the floor.

"Okay, now turn left." Riley said, Ben followed his directions and came to a single room that had no hallway.

"Dead end." He said.

"I mean, right! Go right." Riley said, he jumped when he heard the door in the men's bathroom open and close and heard someone's footsteps. He planned on keeping his voice quiet when Ben asked, and he jumped almost a foot off the toilet he was sitting on when someone had picked the lock of the stall he was in and the door opened.

"Hi there," Letty greeted with a smirk, closing the door of the stall behind her. Riley sighed in relief.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked.

"I got bored waiting outside." Letty said, moving so she was behind Riley and looking over his shoulder at the screen. She watched as a little dot, which she assumed was Ben, went through the hallways in the second floor of the palace, "How's it going?"

"Abigail decided to tag-along." Riley said, Letty smirked.

"I thought she might." She said, she leaned down, getting her face next to Riley's as she picked up the microphone that Riley was speaking to Ben with, "Tell Abby I said hi, Ben." She pulled away from Riley and leaned back on the bathroom wall, grinning when she noticed Riley shudder slightly from the lost contact.

Ben looked back at Abigail as they walked through the hallway of the palace, "Letty says hi." He turned back to his front as they kept walking until they reached a room and walked in, carefully shutting the door behind them. They looked around as they entered the study, and Ben laid his eyes on the desk, "That's it." He put the flowers down on a nearby table.

"The resolute desk." Abigail said, looking at it.

"We should…" Ben walked closer to it, avoiding the eyes of the maid cleaning the next room, "Be looking for writing… patterns in the carvings. Could be anything." He and Abigail inspected the desk, looking at the patterns on the wood. Ben went under the desk and looked curiously at a name written on the desk's underside. "Hey, look at this." Abigail got down and looked at the name and the insignia that went with it, "Malcolm Gilvary, 1880."

"Hold on one second." Riley said, typing away on his computer, doing a search for the name, "Here we go, Malcolm Gilvary… Well, he didn't make furniture."

"According to this, Ben," Letty said, "He made Chinese puzzle boxes." Ben moved so he was under the drawers of the desk and pulled one out, seeing small indentions in the drawers every couple of inches, and hearing a click each time one appeared.

"Oh…" He murmured, seeing the small numbers carved into each small indention.

"What is it?" Abigail asked, scooting up beside him.

Ben gestured to the numbers, "I think these drawers," He pulled out another one, seeing the same number and indentions, "Work like tumblers in a safe."

"Okay, four drawers," Abigail said, pointing to each one, "Four digit combination?" Ben nodded in agreement, "What about a year?"

"Uh, well, let me see," Riley said as he typed away on his computer, doing a search for Queen Victoria, "Queen Victoria, born 1819."

"So, we got one." Ben said, gesturing to one of the drawers Abigail was under, and she pulled it out to the one, "Eight…" He pulled out the second drawer, "One…" He pulled out the third, "Nine…" He waited for something to happen, but it didn't.

"Any luck?" Letty asked, curious as to what was happening.

"Okay, 1876 was on the inscription on the statue in Paris, let's try that." Ben suggested. Abigail nodded and pulled out the first drawer to the one.

"One…" She said, seeing the number come up.

"Eight…" Ben said as he pulled out the second drawer, "Seven…" He pulled out the third drawer and moved to the fourth, "Six." He jumped when part of the desk popped out and he looked at it with a grin. Getting on his hands and knees, he went over to that part of the desk, and turned the parts that had popped out until they couldn't turn anymore and pushed them in. A hidden drawer popped out when he did this, and he slowly pulled it open to reveal a small, wooden tablet inside covered in symbols Ben was unfamiliar with. "Uh-oh…"

"What?" Letty asked.

"New rules." Ben said, he gestured to the markings on the tablet, "These markings are like… Incan, or Aztec."

"I have never seen any symbols like this." Abigail said, looking at the tablet in awe, "I mean, this looks centuries older than civil war." Ben carefully pulled the tablet out and blew off the dust, inspecting it. "What do you think it means?"

"Well, I doubt it has anything to do with the plot to assassinate Lincoln." Ben said.

Letty and Riley heard a beeping on one of the small devices that Riley had set up for their mission, and turned their attention to the screen. They saw the guard who had brought Ben and Abigail into the detaining room was coming back.

"Uh-oh." Riley said, "Mayday, mayday. Make it out of there." Riley typed away on his computer, bringing up the schematics for the palace, "Okay, let's make some noise." He pushed enter, and the fire alarm started going off. Riley got a little smirk on his face as he said, in an imitation of Ben's cheesy accent, "Uh-oh, God save the queen." Letty snorted in laughter and lightly smacked his shoulder as he kept typing, damaging the security system.

"Come on, Riley, we gotta go." Letty said. Riley nodded and began quickly packing everything up, Letty helping him, and they quickly moved out of the bathroom, following the crowd out. After a second, they found Ben and Abigail and quickly caught up to them, breaking off from the crowd. As they walked, they didn't notice three suspicious figures following them. They walked by a pair of girls walking a large group of dogs, who were very friendly and started jumping up on them. Ben, Abigail, and Letty easily moved around the dogs and their leashes, while Riley had a little bit more trouble. This was because, one: He didn't like dogs. And two: He was allergic to dogs. He quickly moved past the dogs, the girls walking them apologizing to him, and he ran up to where everyone else was walking.

"Thanks for waiting for me." He said sarcastically, "Can I see the thing?" Ben reached back and pulled out the wooden tablet, handing it to him. "Okay, we went to Buckingham Palace, and all we got is this old piece of wood?"

"Riley, shush." Letty said, taking it from him and looking over it, "This is very cool. I mean, look at these symbols! You were right, Ben, these things are definitely Incan or Aztec." She looked up at her brother, and saw him looking at something behind them, "Ben?" He only said one thing in reply.

"Wilkinson."


	5. Chapter 5

5

"What?" Letty looked behind them and saw Wilkinson looking at them. Ben started running, and everyone followed suit. Wilkinson sent two men after them, both of them holding guns.

"He's the one who's after the treasure!" Ben said as they ran back towards their car.

"Okay, I'll drive!" Riley said, getting into the car where the steering wheel would normally be on an American car. When he got in, there was no steering wheel, he was in the passenger's seat.

"We're in England." Ben said as he got in the driver's seat and started the car, Abigail and Letty in the back seats. Ben put the car in reverse and looked back to see one of Wilkinson's men pointing a gun at them, "He has a gun! Get down!" The man fired at the back window, shattering it. Abigail shrieked when it did and she and Letty ducked down.

"We're trapped!" Riley said, seeing that they had parked on a dead-end street.

"Hang on!" Ben said, activating the rear-view camera on the car so he could see behind him without lifting his head. "Keep your heads down!" He backed the car up quickly, making a sharp turn in front of a hotel and running over someone's suitcase. He drove in reverse down the street until he got to a point where he could turn the car around and drive down the street the proper way as Wilkinson's men hijacked a couple of cars to follow them. They sped down the road, and Abigail and Letty looked behind them to see one of the cars closely coming up on them.

"Ben, they're getting closer!" Letty said worriedly at him.

"What is their problem?" Riley asked, looking back at the car. Ben increased his speed and took a sharp turn on another road. The car following behind them was quickly joined by a second and was coming up fast.

"Turn left! Turn left!" Abigail said, pointing to the next turn.

"Hold on!" Ben said, quickly making the turn with the two others still following him. When he reached the road, one came up next to their car, bumping against it. Ben almost lost control, but did his best to keep driving and sped up to avoid being boxed in by that car and the one behind it. As he drove, he saw a double decker bus driving on the road ahead of them.

"Turn, turn, turn!" Riley said urgently. Ben did so, the car skidding as he made the sharp turn.

"Watch out!" Abigail cried as they quickly moved towards the bus. The car slammed against it, breaking one of the windows on the bus and shattering the window beside Letty's seat. She shrieked as she felt some of the glass fly out, scratching her skin. Ben drove onward, speeding faster.

"Everyone okay?" Ben asked. Abigail and Letty didn't answer as they looked behind them, seeing the cars had gotten a little behind, but knew they would catch up. Ben sped up, and groaned in frustration when he came up behind a huge truck filled with barrels of beer to be delivered somewhere. He glanced at the rear-view mirror, and saw one of Wilkinson's men sticking out the window with a gun aimed at them, "Look out!" He fired, Abigail shrieked and everyone ducked down to avoid the bullets as he fired off a second, then a third. The third one hit the beer truck, making the gate that held all the barrels open up and fall out of the back. Ben swerved and did his best to avoid the barrels, when really he just charged through them, leaving Wilkinson's men to handle the barrels they avoided. They didn't get through completely unscathed, though, especially when one of the barrels exploded against the windshield, leaving its sudsy contents all over the car as it rolled away. Ben flipped on the car's wipers and, seeing that the road beside the one they drove on was empty, quickly sped up and swerved in front of the beer truck. The driver saw them and slammed down on his breaks to stop. Wilkinson's car, however, wasn't so lucky with its breaks, and crashed into the rear of the truck, the rest of the beer rolling out onto the now-totaled car.

Seeing that they had slowed down their pursuers greatly, Ben put the car in gear and they sped off down the road, leaving the cars behind them. As they drove on, Abigail and Letty still looking back to check if they were still being followed, an unusual, loud, ringing sound came.

"What's that?" Riley asked when he heard it. Abigail looked down to see the source of the sound was coming from her purse, "It's somebody's phone." He turned around to see whose it was and Abigail pulled it out, checking the caller ID and looking up at Ben.

"It's him." She said. Ben held his hand out for the phone and she gave it to him.

"You have his number on your speed dial?" Riley asked accusingly.

"Oh, shut up." Abigail sneered at him. Ben hit the call button and answered the call.

"Mitch, this has gotta end before someone gets hurt." He said.

"You give me what you got at Buckingham Palace, and it won't be necessary." Wilkinson replied.

"Tell that to my father." Ben growled into the phone.

"What'd he say? What'd he say?" Letty asked, unable to hear anything other than Ben's half of the conversation. She didn't get her answer as Ben hung up, turning down another road, and almost running into a huge group of people walking down the middle of it.

"Why are they standing in the middle of the street?" Letty asked, looking at the huge group of people. Ben honked the car horn to get them to move, and they did. Suddenly, people saw something, whether it was their car or something else (And Letty had a suspicious feeling it was the something else) and started running.

"Where are all these people going?" Ben asked, wondering what was going on.

"Why are they running?" Riley asked, they looked behind them and saw the truck from before was right behind them, honking its own loud horn. At the driver's wheel was one of Wilkinson's men.

"He's _right there_!" Abigail screamed, "Go! Go!" Ben sped up as much as he could without hurting any of the people trying to run away around him, while the truck just charged through the street, destroying anything that came into its path. Ben sped down the road once they were in the clear and down another one which, coincidentally, had more people. He drove quickly, not caring that he was destroying multiple scooters in the process of doing so, because the truck following them would do much more damage. He kept searching the area for an escape they could use, and he saw an alleyway up ahead that was big enough for the car, but too small for the truck. He made a sharp turn down it, the tires of the car screeching when he did, and took off to the main road, while the truck simply stopped, unable to go anywhere.

When they went on the main road, they saw the second car from earlier coming up on their tail. "Ben, they're still behind us!"

"Does this phone have a camera?" Ben asked Abigail, still holding onto her phone.

"No…" Abigail said, unsure why he was asking, "No, it's broken." Ben cursed under his breath and tossed the phone back to her, not caring where it ended up.

"Give me the plank." He told Riley, who did so. Ben looked around them for something, but nobody was sure what. "Hang on, we're gonna run a red light."

"What_?_!" Letty screeched, Ben honked his horn as they approached one, and the people on the crosswalk jumped out of the way, and Ben held up the plank to his face so the traffic camera would get a picture of the plank. They narrowly avoided a few cars, but they made it through the intersection, with Wilkinson's men not too far behind.

"Hack into the London Police Database and get a copy of that picture from that traffic cam." Ben said to Riley.

"Okey-dokey." Riley bit out sarcastically.

"Can't do it?" Ben asked, wondering if he had just gotten his face on a traffic camera for nothing.

"No, I can do it." Riley said, "I just don't like how you _assume_ that I can do it."

Abigail let out a small laugh, "Why, thank you, Riley." He had just proved a point in her fake argument with Ben, smacking his shoulder. Ben sighed, but said nothing about it as he sped off down the road to a bridge. He held out the plank as Wilkinson's car got closer to where they were, and he held it out the window.

"Get it!" Wilkinson ordered the man next to him, who reached out his window to try and grab it as Ben held it out. Suddenly, he threw it over the car, over the bridge, into the water below. As their car sped off, Wilkinson's car stopped, effectively stopping other traffic as well. Letty watched from the back of the car as one of the men dove into the water to retrieve the plank. Everyone gave a collective sigh of relief when they realized they were finally safe. After a moment of slowing down and getting back on the speed limit to avoid being pulled over by the police, Letty reached over to her brother and smacked the back of his head.

"Ow!" Ben looked back at his sister, "What was that for?"

"Never. Do. That. Again." Letty said, putting emphasis on each word to make sure her point got across. She sighed, leaning back in her seat, "You scared the hell out of me, Ben…"

"So… now what?" Riley asked, wondering what they should do next.

"Now, we're going back to the hotel and getting on the next flight out of here." Ben said, "In the meantime, you're going to get that picture and print it out. We're going to take it to Dad to see if he can translate it, or at the very least, tell us what language it is."

* * *

><p>Letty, Ben, and Abigail walked up the steps to Patrick's home, who smiled happily when he saw them. Riley was just behind, carrying the bulk of the luggage, which was mostly Abigail's. He came outside, shutting the door behind him.<p>

"There's my little girl!" Patrick said happily, going over to his daughter, who smiled at him and hugged him.

"Hi, Daddy!" She said happily.

"Abigail!" He greeted happily as he came up to her.

"Hey, Patrick!" Abigail greeted in return, hugging the man and kissing his cheek. Ben watched the exchange, realizing that Patrick had yet to say hello to him. He leaned over to Letty.

"How is it that I found the Templar Treasure, something the Gates family has been searching for _hundreds_ of years, and yet, you're _still_ the favorite?" He asked, Letty smirked.

"I've always been the favorite." She said with a grin, "And I always will be~!" She sang out her words as she walked into the house.

"Nice to see you two together again." Patrick said, looking at Ben as he helped Abigail with her luggage.

"Yeah… well… we're not." Abigail said awkwardly as she followed him inside the house.

"Oh." Patrick said disappointedly, "I was hoping to get some of these boxes out of the house."

"I told you, it's just temporary." Ben said as he followed him inside. Riley tried to follow them inside, but found that he was unable to go forward because the suitcase he carried refused to go up the stairs. He grunted as he tried to pull up the heavy suitcase, but found it was impossible. Letty noticed his trouble, and went over to help him, taking the suitcase that rested on top of the one on wheels, which was the one that was making it difficult for him to pull it up.

"Thank you." Riley said as they both walked in.

"Riley, there you are." Ben said once they entered the house, "Can you please pull up the picture of the plank for my Dad?"

Riley sighed, but consented, putting all the luggage down near the door as he moved his laptop bag from his shoulders, turned it on and went online, hacking into the London Police Database again and pulling up the picture.

"We found this plank in the resolute desk in Buckingham Palace, for reasons I can't tell you, we lost it and got a picture." Ben said.

"What he _means_ is we got in a bad car chase and we had to give them the plank to get them to leave us alone." Letty said, Ben shot her a look, and she sneered immaturely back. Patrick didn't seem concerned as he looked over the symbols on the plank in the picture.

"Can't read the whole thing, but…" Patrick began, looking at the picture carefully, "I can tell you these are definitely pre-colonial Native American markings."

"Easily five hundred years old." Ben said, looking at the picture as well.

"Easily…" Patrick agreed, he squinted his eyes as he looked at the picture, and pushed a button to get a close up of it as he took off his glasses to see the screen better. His eyes widened as he looked at one particular marking on the plank, "I can identify… one symbol." He pointed to the marking at the corner of the plank, "Look at this. Do you know what this is?"

"A sacred calindrical? I don't know." Ben said

"That symbol… is Cibola." Patrick said, looking at it. Ben and Letty sighed.

"The city of gold." Letty sighed, covering her face with her hand. The word Cibola was a word she and Ben had been familiar with since childhood, mostly because they heard the story of it when they were very young from their mother.

Abigail let out a short laugh in disbelief, "The city of _what_?"

* * *

><p>Letty opened up one of the books she and Ben had brought down from the attic to show everyone what they were talking about. She found the story of Cibola, and began to read it out loud, word for word as Abigail and Riley looked through another book.<p>

"_'In 1527, a Spanish ship wrecked on the Florida coast'_," She read, "_'There were only four survivors. One was a slave named Esteban, who saved a local tribe's dying chief. As a reward, he was taken to their sacred city. A city built from solid gold.'_" She turned the page, "_'Later, when Esteban tried to find the city again, he never could. But the legend grew, and every explorer came to the new world in search of it.'_" She skipped ahead a few pages, not wanting to have to tell the lengthy story of other explorers except for the one most related to their own treasure hunt, "_'When General Custard's search for gold ended with his last stand at Little Big Horn, it became clear. No one would ever find it'_." She closed the book, the story of Cibola in that book ending there. Patrick, having listened to the whole story, looked up from where he was sitting to see where his daughter was leaning against the fireplace mantle, Ben just off to the side, leaning against the wall.

"Ben, can you imagine?" Patrick asked, standing up, "If the confederates got their hands on the city of gold… My God…" He stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned away, heading out of the room.

"I'm gonna go talk to her." Ben said, Patrick froze, knowing exactly who he meant. He turned back around to see Ben and Letty looking at him. Ben pointed his index finger at him, "And _you're_ coming with me."

"No!" Patrick said quickly. He tried to get out of the room, but Ben was younger, and was able to move faster around the piles of boxes in the room so he could stop his dad before he left.

"Hey, no one else can translate it!" Ben said, coming in front of his father.

"There are others!" Patrick said desperately, "There are _several_ others!" Riley and Abigail turned around on the couch, curious to see how this would go. Riley had no clue who they were talking about, but Abigail knew, and she had this smile that refused to leave her face.

"For _ancient Native American_?" Ben asked, "There's no one better."

"Who?" Riley asked quietly, Abigail only shook her head, that smile still on her face, and held up her hand to get him to be quiet.

"Look, Ben," Patrick began, "I can't go with you. It's been… what— twenty five years!"

"It's been thirty two, Daddy." Letty corrected from the mantle, having stayed there. Patrick looked at her in surprise.

"That long…" He murmured, he turned away from Ben and walked over to the mantle, Ben followed him. "There's a _reason_ why we haven't spoken in thirty two years. We have nothing in common!"

"Me?" Ben asked pointedly.

"Me?" Letty asked in the same tone of voice. Patrick looked where he was caught between his two kids.

"Oh, yes of course…" He said, "And I'm sure she's just as proud of the two of you as I am."

"Who?" Riley asked.

"Their mom." Abigail whispered to him, that smile still on her face.

* * *

><p>"Riley, would you calm down?" Letty asked with a chuckle as her boyfriend continued on. She, Ben, Abigail, Patrick, and Riley walked along the paths of the campus for the University of Maryland, where Letty and Ben's mother, Emily Appleton, worked as a professor.<p>

"How come I've never heard of your mom until now?" He asked, "And _now_, now I'm going to _meet_ her? I mean, will she even _like_ me? What kind of guy does she want you dating?"

"Riley." Letty said strongly, "I'm letting you know now, my mother won't like you."

"What? Why_?_!" Riley demanded, growing more and more nervous by the second.

"Because the kind of guy my mom wants me to date is… well, Connor." She turned to Abigail, "No offense." Before Abigail could say anything, she turned her attention back to Riley, "And guys like Connor are boring and dull and business-y. _You_ are not. You are fun, and sweet, and creative, and a…" She paused, glancing at her father, as if remembering that he was still there, then leaning in and whispering, "And you're a _god_ in bed." Riley smirked at the mention, "That's why I know she's not going to like you, but she'll come around to it. I promise."

"Okay, now I'm freaking out." Riley said, Letty smiled, shaking her head. She took his face in her hands and planted a kiss on his lips. When she pulled away, she waited to see his reaction, "…Okay, less freaked out now." She giggled at his answer.

"Lucky you." Patrick said with a sarcastic bite.

"Dad." Ben said in an admonishing tone.

"It's your _mother_!" Patrick said, "Thirty-two years!" He stopped just before they entered the building where Ben and Letty's mother's office was, "You know what? I can't do this." He turned around, starting to walk away.

"Dad!" Ben reached for the back of his father's jacket.

"Hold it!" Letty reached out and grabbed his arm. They both pulled their father back and brought him with them as they went through the doors of the building.

"Will you relax?" Ben said to him as they walked through the hallways, "It's gonna be fine."

"Sure," Patrick said sarcastically, "I should look at the bright side. It's been a long time. Maybe she's lost her memory and she won't recognize me." As the approached her office, a young student came out the door, looking very disgruntled.

"I _hate_ her!" She said as she walked out, stopping in surprise when she saw the group before her. She carefully walked around them to go to her next class.

"We're in the right place." Patrick said grimly as he watched the student leave. Ben opened the door again and everyone started walking in except Riley.

"I'm just gonna go ahead and take myself out of the line of fire for this one, guys." He said, taking a seat that lay on the other side of the hallway. Letty rolled her eyes and went to go get her boyfriend, grabbing him by the sleeve and pulling him up, dragging him into the office with her. Patrick begrudgingly following after the couple. Once she entered the room, she smiled as she greeted her light-haired mother, who had already greeted Ben and Abigail with hugs and kisses.

"Hey, Mom." She said as she came up to her.

"Letty!" Emily wrapped her arms around her daughter, "Hello, sweetheart! This is such a wonderful surprise!" She pulled away, looking to see who else had come into her room. She completely ignored Riley as her friendly smile fell and she looked at Patrick, her voice becoming cold and harsh as she said, "Oh."

Patrick looked at her, and then at his children, "You see?" He told them, "_One_ syllable," He pointed his finger into his chest in a stabbing motion, "_Knife_ in the heart!"

"Oh, no, no." Ben said with a laugh, trying to dissipate the situation.

"She can do that!" Patrick said.

"Yes, and I can also track the whereabouts of my _toothbrush_." Emily said as she glared at her ex-husband. Patrick looked at her incredulously.

"I was not the one that left the toothbrushes in Marrakesh!" He said, Emily rolled her eyes, "I stowed them both in the travel case! As instructed!"

"Yes! And you also—!"

"You told me—!"

"—And you _also_ insisted on loading the luggage into the taxi!"

Letty and Ben let out a weary sigh as their parents continued to argue.

"I didn't insist! I loaded the luggage."

"Yes! But not the travel case!"

"The travel case is not _luggage_! The travel case goes _into_ the luggage! Who was in charge of packing the luggage?"

"I couldn't _get_ the travel case into the luggage! Because it was full with that stupid rug you bought. You thought it had—"

"Mom." Ben said, trying to get her to listen to him.

"—some sort of _secret stitching_—!" She continued on.

"It _did_ have secret stitching!" Patrick said. Letty sighed as her parents continued to bicker.

"Mom!" She said, the two stopped arguing instantly, and she pulled out a picture of the plank, "We need you to take a look at something." She handed the picture to her. She turned it over, looking at it curiously.

"What is that a picture of?" She asked, walking over to her desk.

"It's very interesting," Ben said, "We think it might be Olmec."

"It is." Emily said as Ben sat down at her desk, everyone but Patrick crowded around the desk, looking, "Yes, yes definitely proto-zocean."

"We were hoping that you… could translate it." Patrick said awkwardly. Emily glanced at him coldly.

"Yes of _course_ you were." Emily bit out. Patrick sighed, looking away. She paused, then looked at her two children and her ex-husband, "Oh, this… this doesn't involve another… treasure hunt, does it?"

"Mom, this is actually _really_ important." Letty said gently, putting her hands on her mother's shoulders as Patrick went to sit on one of the couches in the room.

"Well, all right…" Emily said as she began to look over the picture, "What do we have here…?" She pointed to one of the symbols, "This… This glyph here, that means bird." Patrick moved to get up, "And that means…" She stopped and glared at Patrick when she saw him move. He sat back down, and she immediately went back to translating, "Ah… Noble bird. _Find the noble bird, let him take you by the hand, and give you passage to the sacred temple_…" She paused as she looked at the last glyph, then looked up at Patrick, letting out a small chuckle, "Oh, you think this is a treasure map for Cibola, don't you?"

Patrick stood up, "Well, that is _exactly_ what it is."

"_No_, Patrick." Emily said, "This glyph doesn't mean Cibola, it means the center of the world!"

"You know, you used to like it." Patrick said as he came over to the others, "She fell in love with me on a treasure hunt!"

"That was _not_ love!" Emily said quickly, leaving the desk and walking to be across from him, "That was… excitement… adrenaline, and… tequila."

"Mom." Ben sighed, not wanting his parents to bicker again.

"And I was just trying to get course credit!" Emily said.

"Mom!" Ben tried again, but still, his parents ignored him.

"Well, the treasure-hunting paid off, in case you haven't read the papers, lately." Patrick said smugly.

"That had nothing to do with you! That was _Ben_!" Emily said, "_Ben_ found the treasure! You did nothing!"

"Mom, Daddy, please?" Letty said, getting their attention, "Can we _just_ figure out what's on the page?" She made a little begging gesture, and Emily came over. Conspicuously, she leaned down and whispered to Ben, "Behold the power of the favorite." Ben waved her away with an annoyed glare.

"Well, that's just it, I'm afraid." Emily said as she walked back over and looked at the page, "These glyphs are only partials. So, you only have half a treasure map." She handed them back to Ben, "I'm sorry." She leaned down and whispered, with a pointing glance at Patrick, "Not that I'm surprised." She stood up, and for the first time, noticed that Riley was in the room, "I'm sorry, who are you?"

"Um, I'm Riley Poole." He said, holding out his hand to the woman, leaning over the desk. She shook his hand, "I am, uh… I'm…" He couldn't seem to get the words out, so Letty spoke for him.

"He's my boyfriend." She said. Riley looked at her with wide eyes.

"I was getting to that!" He hissed to her.

"Well, you were taking too long!" Letty hissed back. She looked back at her mother, who was looking Riley up and down, sizing him up.

"And just what do you do, Mr. Poole?" She asked.

"Mom," Letty groaned, not wanting her to interrogate Riley about his life.

"Uh, well, I'm primarily a computer programmer," Riley said awkwardly, "But-But I _have_ written a book!"

"And has it sold?" Emily asked.

"Sort of…" He said, "…Not really, no."

"So… you don't really have a high-paying job, do you?" She asked.

"Mom!" Letty exclaimed.

"Letitia, hush." She said. Letty shut her mouth. Whenever either of her parents used her full first name as a child, she knew they were angry and wanted her to be quiet. That still worked on her today. Emily turned her attention back to Riley, "And just what makes you think you're good enough for my daughter?"

"Well…" Riley was unsure what to say, "I… I love your daughter." He glanced at her, smiling, and she smiled back at him, "Like… a _lot_. And, she seems to love me back, so…"

"Mom, we're living together." She said bluntly, to Riley's surprise, Patrick jumped to attention just as much as Emily.

"When was this established?" Emily asked in surprise, looking between her daughter and Riley.

"About two months ago." Letty said.

"And you didn't think to tell me?" Patrick asked, a little angered by the fact his daughter had never spoke to him about it.

"I didn't think it was that big of a deal!" Letty said to him.

"It's a _very_ big deal!" Patrick said, he glared at Riley, "What did you do to my daughter?"

"Wha—! Nothing!" Riley said, jumping back in surprise at his accusatory tone, "I haven't done anything!"

"Letitia, I do _not_ approve of this!" Emily said.

"Mom, I'm an adult, I can make my own choices!" Letty said, "I'm not a child anymore!"

"Maybe not, but I never approved the two of you living together!" Patrick said, gesturing between the two of them.

"I don't require approval to share a home with the man I love!" Letty said to him.

"Well, you certainly need_ my_ approval!" Emily said.

"No, I don't!" Letty said.

"_Oh_, yes you do!" Emily said, "Who knows how he's going to turn out in ten years? Your love could die out very fast, Letitia!"

"You don't know how it's going to be for us in ten years, either!" Letty snapped at her, "Now listen, both of you." She glared pointedly at both her parents, making sure they were silent, "I know Riley and I are young, and I know that me being in a relationship with a guy like him isn't your first choice, but no matter what you say, I love him. And I would appreciate if you both accepted my decisions and didn't react to them as if I were still a teenager, because I'm not. I'm a grown woman with a PhD in forensic science, I think I'm smart enough to know the difference between a good relationship and a bad relationship. Now," She took Riley's hand in hers, "Riley and I are living together, we share a bed, and we are happy. If you anything against that, you'd better speak up now, because this is the last I'm hearing of this!"

Her parents, as well as Ben, Abigail, and Riley, were stunned into silence after her speech, and Letty nodded, taking that as a good sign.

"Okay then, if that's all, then we're leaving." She held onto Riley's hand as they walked out of the office and into the hallway, Ben, Abigail, and Patrick just behind them. Riley was quiet for a moment, then stopped, pulled Letty to him, and kissed her. Letty felt her knees go weak at the contact of it as Riley put his hand on the small of her back, and his other one behind her head. Letty reached up and grasped at the clothes on his back, returning his affections in the kiss. When he pulled away, needless to say, they were both breathless.

"I love you." Riley said, his eyes soft as he smiled at her. Letty smiled back, putting her forehead against his and looking lovingly into his eyes.

"I love you, too." She said, she kissed him again, then pulled away, linking her fingers with his and walking out onto the campus.

"Well," Ben began once they were outside, "At least we know where the rest of the map is."

"What?" Patrick looked at his son, "You know where it is? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because obviously, you have a tendency to _overreact!_!" Ben said, getting in his dad's face. Patrick jumped back in surprise from his shout, as did everyone else. Ben sighed to calm down, and Patrick looked at his son.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"So am I." Ben replied.

"So where is it?" Patrick asked.

"The inscription on the statue in Paris said that '_these twins stand resolute_'." Ben said.

"We think the map is divided between the two resolute desks." Abigail said.

"The resolute desk!" Patrick exclaimed, "_The_ resolute desk?" Ben nodded, "The president's desk?" Abigail and Letty nodded.

"The president? What president? _Our_ president_?_!" Riley asked in shock, looking at Letty, who nodded.

"Unfortunately, yeah." She said.

"But that means— So, we have to—" He looked over at Ben, "… The White House?"

"The oval office, to be exact." Ben said.

"Why would I overreact to that?" Patrick asked sarcastically.

* * *

><p><strong>GAAAAAAAAHHHHHH! I'M SO SORRY!<strong>

**I've taken forever to update this story, and I got caught up with another story which has gotten a lot of reviews, and I am so addicted to the review amount that I just totally ignored this story and didn't even think to work on the next chapter until, like, two weeks ago when I got a new review for it!**

**TT^TT **

**I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm soooooooo sooooorryyyyyyyy!**

**I'll try and be a little faster with the updates. :'(**

**I'm so sorry…**


	6. Chapter 6

6

Letty looked over Riley's shoulder as he looked over the homepage for the white house website, looking for some way to get there without getting caught from straying past a tour that wouldn't even let them near the oval office.

"The resolute desk is near the south wall." Patrick said, coming up from behind them. He placed a book down beside Riley's laptop, showing them a picture of Kennedy sitting at the resolute desk with his son down below, playing underneath, "In the oval office, look at this."

"Small door on the front of the desk." Ben said, looking at the picture.

"FDR had that put so guests couldn't see his wheelchair." Riley kept scrolling down the page, and then found something that caught his attention, "But—"

"Guys," Riley said, interrupting whatever Patrick was going to say, "Take a look at this." He pointed to the event advertised on the page.

**Annual Easter Egg Roll**

**On the White House Lawn**

**General Admission. Tickets are selling quickly. **

**Don't miss out on this wonderful holiday tradition.**

"This could work." Abigail said.

"Why, Abby," Letty began with a smirk, "I do believe it's time to call up your new boyfriend."

Abigail smirked back in return, "I think you're right."

* * *

><p>Since Ben was the one who really knew how to unlock the puzzle box desk, he went with Abigail to the Easter Egg Roll while Riley, Letty, and Patrick waited outside the White House. Abigail was delighted by the Easter Egg Roll, with children running around with painted faces, and rolling their Easter Eggs in a race against each other. They were running around, laughing, screaming, and just having a good time.<p>

A man in an Easter Bunny costume was prancing around with a basket full of little stuffed bunnies.

"Is that Connor in the bunny suit?" Ben asked, hoping he would get a chance to degrade the man. Abigail ignored his question as the bunny suit man came up to her and handed her one of the stuffed bunnies.

"Thank you." Abigail said, the bunny man only pranced away, a couple of kids coming up to him a second later, demanding a bunny toy. "You know, I've never been to an egg roll before." Abigail said as she looked around with a smile, "It's sweet."

"Yeah, I love it." Ben said sarcastically. She handed him the bunny toy and he took it, looking at it, then sticking it in his jacket pocket. He paused when he felt someone tugging on the back of his jacket.

"Hey, I know you." A voice said, Ben turned around to see a little boy looking up at him, Ben smiled, thinking it was a fan of his treasure-hunting skills, but not so, "Your great-great-grandfather killed President Lincoln." Abigail and grimaced.

"No, that would be John Wilkes Booth." Ben corrected calmly.

"Eisenschiml says that Booth was just a tool in a greater conspiracy that involved men in Lincoln's own cabinet." The boy said with a proud smile.

"Absurd." Ben replied, "Eisenshchiml's book is filled with spotty research and false assumptions."

"Oh yeah?" The boy asked.

"Yeah." Ben replied.

"How do you explain why Lincoln's bodyguard left his post that night?" The boy challenged.

Ben leaned down to get at the boy's height, "Because President Lincoln was never accompanied by guards when attending the theater—are you listening?—Especially on Good Friday!"

"How do you explain why all the bridges out of Washington were closed? Except _one_! The one Booth needed to escape!" The boy challenged in a shout, catching a lot of attention. Ben stood up straight, acting like he wasn't conversing with the boy and putting a forced smile on his face.

"Okay, run along now, you impossible child." Ben said, "Run along." The boy glared up at him. He gave him some kind of obscene gesture with his hand (He assumed it was the adolescent equivalent of the finger) and ran off. "What is going _on_ with the education in America?" Ben asked Abigail. She looked like she was about to burst out laughing.

"Abigail!" A voice shouted from across the way and Ben saw Connor coming over to them. "Hey!"

"Connor!" Abigail said happily, embracing him when he came over to her.

"I'm so glad you decided to come." He said, he pulled away and saw who was standing next to her, "With… Gates."

"Connor." Ben greeted with a smile.

"We just ran into each other." Abigail lied. There was a pause of silence, Ben looking at Abigail pointedly, and her looking back. Connor glanced between the two of them uneasily.

"Well?" Ben asked, "Aren't you gonna ask him?"

"Ask me what?" Connor asked, wearing a false smile as he looked at Ben.

"No." Abigail said.

"No, really, what?" Connor asked, still looking at Ben.

"I really wouldn't want to impose." Abigail said.

"Well, what she _means_ is," Ben began in a mocking tone, "She doesn't think you _can_."

"Doesn't think I can what?" Connor asked.

"She wants to see the oval office." Ben said.

"No!" Abigail said quickly, making it seem like she didn't want to trouble him, "I know that is _way_ too much to ask."

"It's, uh…" Connor looked at Ben, who was grinning smugly at him. Connor wasn't happy about it. Ben had challenged not only his abilities as white house curator, but also challenged his masculinity. He wasn't going to turn it down, "I can do that."

"Really?" Abigail asked in fake excitement.

"Yeah." Connor said.

"You see?" Ben said pointedly to her.

"You can?" Abigail asked in that fake happiness, Connor nodded and she took his arm, "That is so _cool_ Connor!" She looked back over her shoulder at Ben as they began to walk, "I have _always_ wanted to see the oval office." Ben's grin widened, their plan had worked flawlessly.

"Connor rocks." Ben said, following the couple.

* * *

><p>After travelling through a few empty hallways and Connor flashing his ID badge a couple of times to wandering security guards, they arrived at the oval office.<p>

"Well, here we are." Connor said as they walked in. Ben gave an approving hum as he walked in.

"Wow." Abigail said, looking around.

"The… empire furnishings," Ben said, looking around the room, "Crenulated molding… love it." Connor gave a hum in response as he went to the middle of the room.

"Amazing feeling, isn't it?" He asked, Abigail came up next to him as Ben conspicuously moved to the desk. "Standing in here?"

"Yes, amazing, huh?" Abigail said, she moved to sit on one of the couches, which had been decorated with little bunnies in honor of Easter, but Connor quickly made a motion that she should stand up, and so she did. Ben glanced at the two of them, and Connor looked over at him, seeing that he was looking at the desk.

"Ah, that's the resolute desk." He said, coming over to it, "You might recognize it from the famous photo of young JFK junior playing underneath while his father was working." He knelt down and opened up a small door in the front to demonstrate.

"It's wonderful." Ben said.

"Yeah, but," Connor closed the door and stood up, "Many people don't know that this desk has a twin that sits in Buckingham Palace."

"Isn't that something?" Ben asked, looking at Abigail, who pretended as if she didn't know that.

"Who knew?" She said in return.

"Every president since Rutherford B. Hayes has used that desk," Connor continued, "Except Johnson and Nixon."

"Oh, and Ford, of course." Abigail said, correcting him.

"Uh… no." Connor said.

"Uh… yes." Abigail said.

"No." Connor said.

"Yes!" Abigail said.

"Abigail!" Ben said quickly before she and Connor could get into an argument (Which he would have loved to see, but they had a mission to carry out), "Did you lose an earring?" Abigail, knowing what she needed to do, reached up to where her earrings were and conspicuously removed one.

"Oh, I-I did! Yes." She looked to her boyfriend, "Connor, these were given to me by my grandmother."

"Well, I suppose we should look for it." Ben said, "Wouldn't want anyone to find an earring that doesn't belong to the first lady in the oval office."

"Excellent point, considering we're not supposed to be in here." Connor said, a sense of doom filling his stomach at the idea of someone finding out about them in there.

"Yeah." Ben said in agreement.

"Why don't we… look over here?" Abigail said, giving Connor her best flirty smile. She walked over to one of the couches and Connor, being the easily seduced man that he was, followed her.

"I'll look over here." Ben said, going over to the desk. He quietly put in the numbers 1, 8, 7, 6 in the combination, turning a few blocks that popped out as Abigail continued to seduce Connor as they searched to the earring she hadn't lost. Eventually, Ben got to the last one and a small drawer popped out with a _thud_. Connor looked over at Ben when he heard the sound, but Abigail, thinking quickly, tossed her earring in Connor's line of sight and quickly said his name.

"Connor!" He looked over at her, "You found it." Connor looked and saw the earring in front of him and smiled.

"I did." He said, wondering why he didn't notice it before. He reached down and picked it up, handing it to Abigail as Ben slowly pulled out the drawer to get the second plank of wood, but when he opened it completely, he found that it was empty, save for a small insignia planted in the old wood. Thinking he should get a picture of it, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his camera.

"Thank you _so_ much!" Abigail said, hugging Connor. She looked at Ben, wanting him to get the plank, but he made a gesture telling her to keep going. "Um…" She pulled away and smiled at him, "You're just the best." She kissed him, drawing it out as she saw that Ben was still trying to do something, she wasn't sure what, and she started making out with him, putting her hands in his hair and manipulating his head around as Ben snapped a picture of the insignia. When he was done, he pocketed his camera and stood up, scowling at the sight of Abigail making out with Connor. He cleared his throat loudly, and she pulled away, "Thank you." She stood up and walked over to the door, and Connor stayed there dumbly, trying to figure out what just happened.

"…Okay." He said, getting up and following her out of the room with Ben behind him, a little annoyed at the display he had just seen.

* * *

><p>Letty sighed tiredly as she leaned against the car that was parked just outside the White House. When she saw Abigail and Ben approaching, she instantly got up, knocking on the window to get Riley and Patrick's attention. They both came out of the car and went over to Ben, hoping to see the plank.<p>

"It was empty." Ben said, showing his empty hands.

"Someone must have taken it." Abigail said.

"The brightest men in our country sat at that desk for a hundred years!" Patrick said, "Of course one of them found the map."

"Take a look at this." Ben said, pulling out his camera and going to the last picture that was taken, showing them the strange insignia. "It's a symbol stamped into the wood."

"The presidential seal." Patrick said, looking at it.

"Yeah, but it's _not_ the presidential seal." Letty said, although she noticed the similarities between it and the symbol before them, "Look, the eagle's holding a scroll, not olive branches." No one noticed how Riley saw the picture, then suddenly moved away, his hand over his mouth in shock.

"I'm not sure _what_ this is." Ben said as he looked at it.

"So what do we do now?" Patrick asked irritably.

"Did none of you read my book?" Riley asked. Everyone looked at him, and he looked back, "The eagle… clutching the scroll."

"Do you know what it means?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, but it's not something that I can tell you." Riley said with a smile, "It's something I have to _show_ you. In my book."

"Okay, I think I have a copy of it in Dad's car." Ben said, "Let's go get it." As they started to head over, something came to Riley, and he grabbed Letty's arm.

"How do _you_ not know what that means?" He asked, "You said you read my book."

"I… I did." Letty said awkwardly, "Well… in the _process_ of reading it."

"How far have you gotten?" Riley asked, "I let you look at the manuscripts before they were published! How do you _not_ know?"

"Okay, I kind of ignored the manuscripts." Letty admitted with a guilty grimace, "But, I promise you, I'm reading your book! I'm at chapter five."

"Chapter five?" Riley asked, "Okay, then what's chapter four about?" Letty paused, trying to think.

"Um…" Riley gave her a pointed glare and she shrugged guiltily, "Okay, so I'm still on chapter one. You know that, unless is about forensic evidence or forensic science, I'm not a very big reader!"

"Letty!" Riley cried exasperatedly, "You're my girlfriend! I thought you liked it!"

"I _do_ like it!" Letty said quickly, "I'm just… not all that into it. But I like it! I do!"

"Trouble in paradise?" Ben asked teasingly, Letty sent him a sharp glare.

"Watch it, Ben." She warned, "Or do you want a repeat of the great, earth-shattering event of '97?"

"Shutting up." Ben said quickly.

"What happened in '97?" Abigail asked Patrick, who was smiling widely at the mention of it.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." He said, dismissing her question with a wave of his hand.

It only took them another minute to get to Patrick's car, where some boxes rested in the back. Ben reached in and pulled out the manila envelope that contained Riley's book that he had sent to him. He opened it up and pulled out the book.

"You didn't even… open it?" Riley asked with a sigh.

"I was moving." Ben said.

"Chapter thirteen…" Riley said, seeming to no longer care about it. Ben quickly turned the pages to the thirteenth chapter, everyone but Riley gathering around to see the title.

"The president's secret book?" Ben asked, looking at the dubious title.

"The president's secret book." Riley said with a smile, "It happens to a collection of documents for presidents, by presidents, and for president's eyes only. And I'm not just talking about JFK here, guys. The eighteen and a half missing minutes of the Watergate tapes. Did the Apollo really land on the moon? …Did it? _Did_ it? And, the _coup de gras_, Area 51." Abigail let out a laugh.

"Oh, come on, Riley." She said, "That's an urban legend."

"Is it, Abigail?" Riley asked, walking over to her, "_Is_ it?"

"It's just… totally…" She couldn't find the right words.

"Crazy?" Riley suggested.

"Yeah!" Abigail said. Riley let out a thoughtful hum.

"Because, last time I checked," He began, "We… pretty much make our living on crazy."

"He's got a point." Ben said, Abigail shrugged.

"I guess so…" She sighed, remembering the Templar Treasure.

Patrick pointed to a picture on the page in chapter thirteen, a stamp with an eagle holding a scroll on a document, "Same symbol."

"It was released in '66 under the Freedom of Information Act." Riley said, knowing which picture he was talking about, "The eagle, and the scroll, the _secret symbol_ in the president's book."

"So, you're saying that whatever was on that plank," Patrick began, "Is now in the president's secret book." Riley looked over at Ben, who seemed to be mulling it over.

"Ben," He said, getting his attention, "If it was _you_ trying to convince _me_, you'd have less evidence and I'd already believe you by now." Ben thought about it, and then nodded.

"Okay." He said, Riley grinned, "But, how are we gonna get our hands on it?"

"…I think I might be able to find out." Letty said, getting everyone's attention.

* * *

><p>"The eagle with the scroll." Sadusky said, looking at the printed out picture of the symbol that Letty had borrowed from Ben's camera. She sat in front of his desk in his office at the J. Edgar Hoover building. He put it down and turned to a small bookshelf, pulling one off, "Conspiracy theorists like to believe that it's," He put the book down in front of her, "The symbol for the president's secret book." Letty smiled when she recognized the cover.<p>

"You bought Riley's book." She said with a smile, looking at him.

Sadusky chuckled, "Your boyfriend writes a book about government conspiracies, and you don't think we know about it?"

"But is it true?" She asked, "_Does_ the president have a secret book?" Sadusky picked up the picture, looking at it a minute more, then put it back down, looking at her.

"Do you like ducks?" He asked.

* * *

><p>A while later, Letty found herself walking around the grounds of the capitol building and past a pond filled with ducks.<p>

"There _is_ a book." Sadusky said after a long moment of silence. Letty looked at him oddly.

"Why are you telling me this _here_?" She asked.

"Because _inside_, I'm a federal agent," Sadusky said, he put his hand on her shoulder and stopped walking, "Out here, I'm talking to you as a friend, Letty." Letty nodded in understanding.

"So where is the book kept?" Letty asked.

"Only the current president knows." Sadusky said, "The book is passed from president to president, and each one chooses his own hiding place."

"Sadusky, you're with the FBI," Letty said, "Can't you get it for me?" Sadusky grinned wryly.

"The only way you'll ever see that book," He said, "Is if you get elected president." Letty sighed, looking away and at the pond.

"Well, you never know." She said, "I just might." Sadusky laughed.

"No offense, Letty," He said, "But you don't know a thing about politics." Letty nodded in agreement.

"Yeah…" She bit the inside of her cheek, wondering how she was going to tell her brother this news.

* * *

><p>Ben sat in a chair in the cluttered living room of his father's house. Letty sat on a couch a couple feet away from him, Abigail sitting on the other end of it. She had just finished relaying the information she had gotten from Sadusky to him.<p>

"Sorry, Ben." She said, "There's no way we can get it."

"What if we…" Ben said, "Just… talk to him?"

"The president?" Letty asked dubiously with raised eyebrows.

"All I need is a few minutes with him." Ben said.

"A few minutes." Riley said, "Really? Ben, even if you were _married_ to the president, you wouldn't be able to get a few minutes with him."

"Not when he's surrounded by his handlers, but if I can get him alone—" Riley cut him off.

"How do you expect to get the president _alone_?" He asked with an incredulous laugh.

"Before the civil war," Ben began, "The states were all separate. People used to say 'The United States _are_'. It wasn't until the war ended… that people started saying 'The United States _is_'… Under Lincoln, it became one nation."

"And Lincoln paid for it with his life." Patrick said.

"So did Thomas Gates." Ben said.

"Right." Patrick said.

"With _his_ life." Ben continued, looking ahead of him, a thoughtful look on his face.

"Ben, what does this have to do with anything?" Letty asked, not interested in his way of distracting them with the story of the US history.

"So, how am I gonna get him alone?" Ben said, and everyone waited to hear his answer, "…I'm gonna kidnap him… I'm going to kidnap the president of the United States."

There was a beat of silence, where everyone gaped at Ben.

Abigail let out a laugh in surprise, "You… You can't—"

"I'm your father." Patrick said, "How do you expect me to respond to this? I can't let you ruin your life!"

"Have you lost your mind?" Letty demanded, standing up as everyone else began to stand.

Ben was completely calm as the room became filled with responses from his family and friends as they continued to tell him that it was a stupid idea, that he'd never be able to do it, that they should have never started this stupid mission in the first place, that he would get caught and get arrested, and that he should try to find some other way.

"Exactly how do you plan on doing this?" Patrick demanded.

Ben was calm as he said, "I was thinking Mount Vernon."

"Oh…" Patrick murmured, seeming to approve of the idea.

"What?" Abigail demanded.

"I'm in." Riley said.

"Whoa, hang on." Letty said, "What are you talking about?"

"The Mount Vernon hotel." Ben said, "I know for a _fact_ that there is a secret escape route there that was made by George Washington, and we all know how much the president likes George Washington." Everyone nodded or gave some kind of noise in agreement, "His birthday is coming up, and I was thinking I could trap him in there for a little bit, and get him to tell me."

"Ben…" Letty sighed, "I hate to admit this, but as stupid, reckless, and inconceivably _idiotic_ this idea is to kidnap the president…" Ben looked at her, waiting for her response, "It's a pretty good plan." Ben smiled.

"So, you'll help?" He asked, again Letty sighed.

"You're my brother." She said, "What else can I do?"

* * *

><p>Letty waited until the third ring of the phone for someone to pick up, "Hello, is this the White House Press office?" She asked, smiling at Abigail, who had called them a moment ago to say that the Spencer Landmark Hotel was used for regular Klan meetings in the late 1800's, "Hi, I'm from the Washington Gazette, and I understand that the president is having his birthday party at the Spencer Landmark hotel? …Uh huh. I also understand that that particular hotel was used for Klan meetings in the 1800's, and I would like to know is the president being insensitive to minority issues?" She waited as she heard the shifting of the phone and heard the person call out to someone else,<p>

"Sir! I've got the Washington Gazette, they want a quote on 'Is the president being insensitive to minority issues'?" She said to someone else. She waited until the person replied back, saying that a quote wasn't available at the time and they should call back.

Satisfied, Letty hung up the phone and went over to where Riley was calling the Denbe hotel to book it, "Yeah, I know it's short notice." Riley said, "The pipe burst in the hotel we previously booked, and…" He paused as someone on the other line spoke and he let out a short laugh, "There is water everywhere."

"A retirement party for two hundred people." A voice said, Letty looked up to see Patrick talking on the phone, getting another hotel, "Gunston Hall, if you please… thank you."

"Oh, _wow_." Riley said with a grin as he checked the computer, looking over all the hotels that were booked, "You are a _life-saver_." He smiled when he saw that the only hotel available for the president's birthday party was Mount Vernon. After a moment, they saw that Mount Vernon had been booked. Riley smiled and looked at Letty, "Our evil little plan is working. Again."

Letty sighed, "I hope the Gates family doesn't become known for this kind of stuff." She said, wrapping her arms around Riley's shoulders and leaning on him as she looked at the screen, "Committing a crime and then finding some treasure."

"Well, I know they're known for having a very smart scientist daughter." Riley said with a grin. Letty smirked and looked at him.

"Kiss-up." She said playfully, kissing him. They heard someone clear their throat, and Letty looked up at her father, who was looking at them disapprovingly. Letty moved a little closer to Riley, "Daddy, we talked about this."

"I know we did." Patrick said, "Doesn't mean I'm happy about it." Letty rolled her eyes at her father.

"Whatever." She said, "Have we figured out how to get Ben into the party yet?"

"Yes we have." Ben said, walking into the room, carrying a dry-cleaned tuxedo, "I'm going to wear this under a wetsuit. Dad will rent a boat and sit out on the pond for a while, and I'll dive in. He'll distract the guards for a little bit with… something, and then I'll sneak into the party unnoticed."

Letty stood up, "And how are you planning on doing that?"

"I pretend some girl ditched me when I went to get her a drink." Ben said with a shrug, as if it were obvious. Letty looked him up and down, then nodded in agreement.

"I'd buy that." She said. She walked into the kitchen to get herself something to eat, and Ben stood there, confused by what she had said.

"Wait, what do you mean '_you'd buy that_'?" Ben asked, following her, "Are you saying a hot girl wouldn't want to share a drink with me?"

"Abigail broke up with you, so… yeah!" Letty replied.


	7. Chapter 7

7

Ben adjusted the collar of his wetsuit, making sure that the tuxedo underneath wouldn't get wet. He and Patrick sat in a boat that waited by the lake by the Mount Vernon hotel. Letty looked at them worriedly, and Ben noticed it. He sent her a smile, "Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"I know…" Letty said, shifting uncomfortably, "But, still… Just be careful, okay?" He nodded.

"I will." He said, he turned to Patrick, "Dad, start up the boat." Patrick nodded, and he turned on the engine, taking it into the lake, near enough for Ben to know which way to head for in the water, but far enough not to really be of too much suspicion to the Secret Service officers on patrol on the lake. He dove into the water just before the boat was spotted, and the Secret Service went over to where Patrick was, sounding a siren.

As they came up to him, Patrick held out a fishing rod, putting on an innocent façade as one of the men on the boat walked over to the edge to speak to him.

"Good evening, sir!" He greeted, speaking loudly so he would be heard.

"Evening!" Patrick returned.

"Are you aware that you are in a restricted area?" The man asked him.

"Yeah, but this is where the fish are, son!" Patrick said.

"That may be, but I'm gonna need to have you move upriver!" The man said, pointing in the direction of where Patrick should go.

"Are you aware that according to Article One, Section Twenty-five of the Maryland Constitution," Patrick began, "I'm allowed to fish in public water?"

"Are _you_ aware, sir," The man began, "That I have the right to detain you for forty-eight hours, _without cause_."

Patrick put the fishing pole down, "I am going to go back where I came from just as soon as possible!" He said, and he started up the boat's engine.

Near the shore, Ben had successfully made it through the water without being spotted by the Secret Service and was in the process of removing the wet suit he had on and preparing his tuxedo, along with a pair of glasses and a bottle of wine, to move into the party.

"Maybe one day, I'll where this thing to a party I was actually invited to." He muttered as he reached into his bag and pulled out a small, clear tube that contained an aged document inside. He picked it up and started walking towards the party, he saw a Secret Service agent nearby, and went over to him, acting completely casual.

"Hey!" He got his attention, "You didn't happen to see kind of a cute brunette wandering around here? Went to get her a drink and she disappeared!"

"No, sir…" The agent said, obviously a little surprised by Ben's entrance, but not enough to find him a threat as he walked around him.

"I got no game tonight!" Ben said in exasperation as he headed up to the party. He could hear the sound of a country band playing, which was the party's musical entertainment for the night.

He walked through the party, giving hellos to various important officials attending that night, until he saw the man he wanted to see. The president was speaking to a woman about his campaign. He went over to him, overhearing his words.

"Spread the word that campaign contribution limits are not enforced on—"

"Happy Birthday, Mr. President." Ben said, the man walked right past him, quickly saying a 'thank you' without really noticing him, so he made himself known. "Ben Gates, the Templar Treasure?" The president stopped and looked at Ben, and smiled.

"Oh, right!" He said, "Ben Gates, yeah." He went over and shook Ben's hand.

"We won't keep you, Mr. President." A man said, putting his arm around the shoulders of the woman, directing her away as they both bid him goodbye.

"I can't tell you what a _thrill_ it is for me to be invited here tonight, sir." Ben said.

"Yeah, you must have the Secret Service hopping by now." The President replied. Ben suddenly feared that he had been caught, but he thought it safest to play dumb.

"Sir?" He asked him.

"Well, considering your newly discovered lineage." The president said, Ben breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"Oh! Oh, yeah." He laughed it off.

"Carry on." The president said with a nod, and Ben pulled out the document he had brought with him.

"I beg your pardon sir," He said, unfolding it and showing it to him, "But I know what a huge admirer you are of George Washington and… I thought you might want to take a look at this." The president smiled when he saw it.

"This is a map of Mount Vernon, drawn by George Washington himself." The president said, looking over at Ben.

"Mr. President, that is _exactly_ what it is!" Ben said, acting surprised that he knew that.

"I was an architectural history major at Yale." The president said.

"I… I did not know that." Ben said, continuing to act surprised.

"You didn't?" The president asked.

"No," Ben continued on, "It belonged to my great uncle, who got it from the granddaughter of a slave named Charlotte, who lived here, and worked here at Mount Vernon." The president nodded, his attention completely snagged by Ben's words, "And, we're standing right here, sir." He pointed to where they were on the map, "And this— This line is an underground tunnel, an escape route that was never found." Ben had his finger trace the pathway of the tunnel.

"I wonder…" The president looked up from the map at Ben, "I wonder if it's still there."

"Well…" Ben began with a smile, "Only one way to find out, sir."

"Maybe we should take a look." The president said, excited by the idea of finding an escape route made for George Washington.

"Are we allowed to do that?" Ben asked, looking at him. The president gave him a look that asked 'you _do_ know who you're talking to, don't you?' "No, I know_ you're_ allowed to do that, you're the president." He and the president shared a laugh, "Can I come with you?"

* * *

><p>It wasn't much longer afterwards that Ben and the president of the United States were heading towards the entrance of the underground tunnel, flashlight and map in hand.<p>

"You guys are just _everywhere_." The president said as he came down the stairs to find one of the Secret Service men standing there, watching.

"Yes, sir." He replied.

"Give my friend your flashlight, would you, please?" He asked.

"Yes, sir." The man said, not about to deny an order from the president. He handed Ben the flashlight he had been given.

"Well, according to this map," The president said, looking around the underground room, "It should be…" He pointed his flashlight at the empty rooms they passed, "That's one… Two, in here. Yeah, in here." The president and one of his personal bodyguards looked into the tiny little room, seeing that, in order to go inside, they would need to crouch down to get through the four foot door.

"May I?" Ben asked, wondering if he could first.

"You may." The president said, gesturing for him to go in, and he followed him, and his personal bodyguard was about to, but the president stopped and turned so he could talk to him, "You know, Craig, I appreciate you doing your job, but I have no enemies down here." The agent was quiet, and the president assumed he didn't get it, so he elaborated, "In this cellar. In this tiny little room."

"I'll just wait here, then." Craig said, standing off to the side of the entrance. The president nodded in approval and went in. Craig took a step forward to keep an eye on them, only to be stopped when the president's head came through the entrance again, looking at him pointedly, and Craig stepped back again.

"Over here." Ben called, and the president stepped back inside and went over to where Ben was shining the flashlight he had been given on something on the wall. He came over to see a symbol that was very familiar to him because of his admiration for the first president.

"That's the mark of George Washington." The president said, recognizing it.

"Only it's slightly different." Ben said.

"How?" The president asked.

"These axes," Ben said, pointing to the two stone axes on the mark, "The angle's off." He pointed to the same mark that had been drawn on the map, "In order to correspond with the ones on the map, they should form a perfect…V…" He reached up and moved the axe that was off, and it clicked into place, something else in the room clunking down into place as well. Ben smiled excitedly at the president, and he returned it, thrilled to be doing this. "Okay, what else?"

The president looked at the mark on the map, and the mark on the wall, seeing another difference between the two, "The arrowhead…" He pointed to where the arrowhead on the map was pointing down, "Is sideways." He reached up and turned the arrowhead so it would face the correct direction, and once it clicked in place, the wall beside him began to sink into itself. He jumped a little, but smiled when he realized he had found the escape route. "We're alright!" He called to the guards outside, who were surely concerned for him once they heard the wall break open, "Don't worry!"

Ben reached in and pushed the part of the wall aside, and he shined the flashlight inside to reveal the door of the escape route, covered in cobwebs.

"Come on." The president stepped in, eager to see the room on the other side of the door, and Ben came in after him, sliding the wall shut behind him. The president looked back at Ben, wondering just what it was that he had done. Wasn't that their only way out of there? He shined his flashlight on him, a serious expression on his face, "Gates, what are you doing?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. President." Ben said, "I need to ask you a question, which I know you can't answer unless we're alone." The president's face turned into a grim expression, glaring slightly at Ben as he realized what he was doing.

He turned and began to walk, knowing that his only way out now was to go all the way through the escape route and find the way back to his birthday party. Ben followed him.

"Mr. President, sometime between 1880, when the resolute desk was placed in the Oval Office, and now," Ben began, not stopping him as he walked through the musty stone hallways, "One of our presidents found a secret compartment in the desk. Hidden inside was a plank with Native American writing on it. A treasure map to Cibola." The president looked back at Ben, so he explained, "The City of Gold, sir."

"You did all this just to ask me about a treasure map?" The president asked, moving around the room to find the exit.

"That map is a possible key to proving Thomas Gates' innocence." Ben said. The president looked back at him, having heard about the incident where his ancestor had been named a co-conspirator in the assassination of President Lincoln. He turned back around to focus on getting out. "Now, I know for a fact that the plank is no longer _in_ the resolute desk—"

"What, you've been in my desk, too?" The president asked, shining his flashlight on Ben as he asked him this.

"And I believe the whereabouts of that plank," Ben continued, "Is now hidden in the president's book…sir." The president stopped, "The book known only to our presidents. It contains all of our nation's secrets."

The president let out a chuckle, "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

"I saw the seal in the desk, sir." Ben said, "I know the map exists." The president stepped forward, seeing where this conversation was going.

"And you're not going to tell me how to get out of here until you get what you want." He said, more of a statement than a question.

"The way out is that direction." Ben said, pointing his flashlight at one of the doorways, "And I'll show you."

"You don't negotiate very well, do you?" The president asked.

Ben smirked. "No, sir."

The president shook his head and gestured for Ben to lead the way. So he did, and the president followed him as they moved through the musty old rooms.

"You know, I don't get you, Gates." The president said as they moved through the halls, "You do all this, you're willing to go to prison, just to clear your ancestor's name."

"The way out is just down those stairs." Ben said as they approached a stair case. He looked up at the president, "Everything I am is because of my ancestors, sir. Thomas Gates gave his last full measure of devotion to his country to stop the KGC. When someone dies for their country, I believe it should be honored."

"Last full measure of devotion?" The president repeated.

"Lincoln is my favorite president," Ben said, with a joking smirk he added, "No offense."

The president returned his smirk, "None taken." He began to walk down the stairs, "He's my favorite, too."

"Sir, I know the book exists." Ben said, following him down the stairs, "My question is: Will you agree to let me see it?" The president stopped and turned around to face Ben.

"Even if something like that _did_ exist," he began, "Why do you think I would actually _give_ it to you?"

"Because it will probably lead us to the discovery of the greatest Native American treasure of all time." Ben said, "A huge piece of culture lost. You can give that history back to its descendants, and because… You're the president of the United States, sir. Whether by innate character, or the oath you took to defend the Constitution, or the weight of history that falls upon you, I believe you to be an honorable man, sir."

"Gates, people don't believe that stuff anymore." The president said.

"They _want_ to believe it." Ben said. The president gazed at him a moment, temporarily stunned by his words. He looked at Ben, gaging his character through his appearance, and then he turned around and continued down the stairs to an old door. It wouldn't budge at first, so he kicked it open and he stepped out into the nature of the wildlife outside, Ben just behind him. He looked around and pointed to something in the distance, "The nearest highway's that direction." He looked back at the president, "You'll understand if we part ways here."

The president said nothing as Ben turned and began to walk away. He still watched him, judging his character before he made his next move, "Gates."

"Sir?" Ben turned around to face him.

"The following conversation never happened," The president began seriously, hoping he wasn't making a big mistake by doing this, "The book exists."

"Where is it?" Ben asked.

"Where else do you keep a book? In the Library of Congress." The president said, "XY234786."

"Thank you sir." Ben said, making sure to lock that particular piece of information away.

"You'll also need to know 3794." The president continued.

"Okay." Ben said, he turned around to walk away again, but he was stopped once more by the president.

"Gates," He turned back around.

"Sir?"

"Two hundred people know you held me against my will," The president said, "I can't tell them why. Unless you find what you're looking for, you'll be charged with kidnapping the president. You know what that means."

"Yes, sir." Ben said, "Very much so, sir."

The president gave him a small, encouraging smile, "Gates, I want you to do something for me."

"It would be a privilege, sir." Ben said.

"Page 47." The president said, "Just have a look at that." Ben nodded. He _had_ technically just kidnapped the president of the United States. Ben kind of owed him that favor. They parted, the president heading for the highway, and Ben heading to where Letty and Patrick were waiting for him in their car. On the way over, he pulled out his cellphone and quickly dialed Riley's phone number.

"Riley, meet me at the library of congress in twenty minutes." Ben told him.

"Okay, I'll be right there." He said, Ben could hear Abigail's voice in the background asking, 'Where are you going?' before he hung up.

He got into the car, and once he shut the door, Patrick drove off.

"So?" Letty asked.

"I got the location and how to get to it." Ben said, Letty shook her head.

"I will forever be amazed by what you're able to do, Ben." She said, leaning back into the backseat as her father quickly drove down the highway, unknowingly passing by the president, who was hitchhiking along the highway.


	8. Chapter 8

8

During the entire ride, so as to remember what he was looking for, Ben kept repeating XY234786 and 3794, and it was driving Letty insane. She tried to tune it out, and Ben kept his voice down, but it didn't seem to do much good.

Letty was thanking God by the time she and Ben got to the library of congress.

"Hey." Abigail greeted them, her and Riley having arrived at the same time they did.

"Hey." Ben returned, and they started up the stairs to the library.

They walked in, trying to act casual as they moved through the library.

"Where do we start?" Riley whispered to Letty.

"Ask Ben." She whispered back.

"I just remember the codes being 3794 and XY234786." Ben said.

"XY… It's a book classification code." Abigail said, looking around the library.

"It stands for special collections," Ben said, "Which means very, _very_ special books. Where are they?" Everyone looked to Abigail, who would have knowledge about that sort of thing.

She turned and headed down one of the halls, "This way, we'll have to sneak in." Everyone followed her until they got to a door, which was locked. The door was opened by a man who didn't notice them there, and he walked through, pushing a cart of books. Ben quickly and quietly walked towards the closing door, stopping it from shutting by putting his hand between it and the doorframe. He pushed it back open and everyone quickly filed in, letting the door close behind them. They quickly began the short trip up the stairs to the second floor where all the special collections were kept.

Letty looked at all the books as they passed, seeing the book codes, "Here we go." She said, pointing to a few of them as they passed, "XA… XM…" They kept walking until they got to an area that was locked off that had to contain the XY section. Abigail tried the door, but it wasn't any good. She looked at the handle, seeing that it required a code for anyone to go in, and she saw something on the bottom below all the numbers.

"Look." She pointed to it, showing the symbol of the eagle with the scroll, the symbol for the secret book. She looked at Ben, "Do you have a code?"

Ben nodded and stepped forward, pressing the numbers 3794. A short beep sounded, and the door unlocked, letting them in. They all moved in, looking around at all the books, trying to figure out which one was the one they were looking for.

"What did the president say the number was?" Letty asked as she looked around at all the books.

"234786." Ben said, everyone started looking around for the book with that specific numbers. Ben went to one bookcase and started looking at the numbers, seeing it started at 234776, and figured that was a good start, he looked at all the numbers as they went up. "Here." He called to the others, who quickly went over to where he was. Abigail went to the other side of the bookcase and she began going through the other numbers. Her numbers started at 234790, and kept going down. They met in the middle, between 234787 and 234785. "It's not there…"

"Maybe someone checked it out." Riley said dryly as Ben pulled off one of the books from the shelf, thumbing through the pages.

"Why would he send us here if there's no book?" Abigail asked.

"Because he wanted us to get caught." Letty said with a scowl. Ben looked up, about to put the book back where he found it, and his eyes caught something at the top of the bookcase.

"Here." He handed the book to Riley, who took it confusedly as Ben began to pull more books from the shelf and hand them to him. He grabbed a ladder and stepped up to get a better look at what it was and saw that it was numbers, like one that a person would find on a combination lock.

"What is that?" Abigail asked.

"It's a six-dial combination lock." Ben said, pulling one last book from the shelf. "The location's the combination." He reached up and started putting in the numbers.

"The location is the combination." Riley murmured in awe. Once all the numbers were in place, there was a soft click, and a small drawer opened up, revealing a leather-bound book bearing the seal of the eagle clutching the scroll. Ben reached up and grabbed the book as everyone looked at it in awe. "I was right."

Ben clapped Riley on the shoulder, "Well done, Mr. Poole." Riley smiled and followed Ben over to a small table, where Riley put down all the books and Ben undid the small tie that kept the book closed. He picked the book up once he did, and began to turn through all the pages, looking for the one they needed, but Riley didn't hesitate to point out his favorite parts of the book.

"Area 51…! The—" He said excitedly, pointing to it. Ben shushed him and waved him off. Ben turned a few more pages until the book opened to a familiar picture, "It's the Kennedy Assassination…!" Ben shushed him again.

"We don't have time." Ben said.

"That's true." Riley agreed, albeit a little reluctantly, although everyone around him could see why he was getting so excited. The nation's biggest secrets lay before them, but they couldn't look at them. They just needed to get the map and get out of there. Finally, Ben came to the page they were looking for, "Here," He pointed to it and read aloud, "_'April 1865, Queen Victoria sends Pike 2 coded missives. The first is received. Contains information regarding New World treasure. The City of Gold.'_" He looked up at the others, and Riley's nose scrunched up in confusion.

"Wait… the Queen wanted to help the confederacy?" He asked.

"Well, divided, America would have been weaker." Abigail said.

"And they needed cotton from the south." Ben said, further explaining the reasons why before he continued reading, "_'The second missive was thought to contain a playfair cipher suggesting contact with Laboulaye, who will hide clues before his death.' _That's the cipher that was written in the Booth Diary page that Thomas tried to burn."

"The one we have." Letty said.

"Exactly." Ben said, continuing to read, "_'—1880, Resolute desk arrives in Washington, sent by queen to President Hayes.'_" He flipped the page and smiled as he pulled out a picture of a familiar-looking plank. "Look at that." He showed it to Abigail.

She smiled as she took it, "The missing plank from the White House… Wow."

"Here's the final entry by President Coolidge." Ben said, "_'—1924, I found a plank in secret desk compartment. Plank photographed and then… destroyed…'_" Everyone's hopes of finding the plank's location fell a little bit, but Ben continued on, "_'Borglum commissioned to destroy landmarks in sacred Black Hills Mountains.'_"

"Borglum…" Letty murmured, the name strangely familiar to her. Then she remembered. In the early days of her senior year of high school, she had done a paper on Mount Rushmore, and how a man named Borglum had been commissioned to carve the faces of the most famous presidents into the mountainside, "That's Mount Rushmore."

"He carved Mount Rushmore… to erase the map's landmarks in order to protect the City of Gold." Ben said, coming to a realization.

"Mount Rushmore was a cover-up…" Riley murmured in awe. Letty looked over at him, knowing that wide eyed look on his face.

"Don't get over-excited, Riley." She said.

The sound of sirens made their blood run cold. Riley and Letty went to the window to see police cars approaching the library as Ben closed the book up.

"Ah… There's my tax dollars at work coming to arrest me." Riley muttered sarcastically, looking back at Ben.

"They're not coming for you, Riley, they're coming for me." Ben said as he quickly began fishing for his phone in his pocket, "Go to the car."

"No, Ben!" Abigail said quickly, knowing that if they left without him he could get arrested.

"Go." Ben said firmly, "I'll meet up with you." Letty looked at her brother worriedly, and he nodded at her, "I promise."

Riley, unsure of what to do, began walking towards the entrance they had come in, but Abigail stopped him, grabbing his sleeve, "This way." Letty and Riley followed her and began to go down the stairs as police and FBI began to enter the library. After taking a picture of the plank picture with his cellphone, he quickly moved on to page 47, and took a picture of that. Once he was done, Ben watched from where he was as they carefully maneuvered around the employees and police to head to where the employee only exit was in the center of the library. Once they were through the door and out of harm's way, Ben proceeded to find his own escape route.

Letty, Riley, and Abigail quietly and quickly snuck behind the front desk to get to the stairs that were hidden behind the desk. Once they were in, they dashed down as fast as they could, moving fast through the lower level of the library until they reached the garage.

"How are we gonna find Ben?" Riley whispered as they moved towards the car.

"I don't know." Letty said, breathless from so much running.

"Hold it!" The three of them jumped when they suddenly came upon two police officers shining flashlights in their faces.

"We work here!" Abigail said quickly, showing them her ID card. "We were told to evacuate."

"I-I don't know what's going on in there," Riley stuttered.

"The police just, like, _whooshed_ in out of nowhere!" Letty said. She looked up when her eyes caught movement on the roof and saw her brother was scaling along the side. Soon, all three of them were speaking at once, Riley was describing what had happened inside, Letty was giving details of the 'instructions' they had received, and Abigail was saying that she needed to get to her car, which was parked in an employee-only zone. The two police officers weren't able to keep up with their speeches, so they waved them off, telling them they were good to go.

They moved down to the parking lot where Abigail's car was and they all got in as Ben scaled over the side of the wall and landed behind the car next to them. "Start the car." Riley said, keeping an eye on the police officers as Letty glanced behind them, seeing her brother crouched down. "Put it in gear."

A light flashed on the car, and they looked up to see one of the officers still watching them. "Oh no…" Letty groaned.

"What's the problem?" The officer asked, "It's clear, let's go."

Ben hid from the light, and since he was still there, it was impossible to just get Ben into the car.

"We're going to jail." Riley muttered desolately as he looked at the officer, who now eyed them suspiciously. He reached for his radio, and Abigail reached for the button that opened the trunk of her car. She suddenly sped forward, trunk opening, and Letty turned around.

"Get in!" She shouted, and her brother ran after the car, diving into the trunk. Letty pulled him into the backseat as he closed the trunk behind him, Abigail speeding out of the parking lot.

"Hang on!" She cried. They went over a speed bump so quickly, Letty feared the car would flip over, but it didn't. As they peeled out into the street, a huge amount of police and FBI were coming after them, sirens wailing. Letty happened to glance into the crowd, and see Agent Sadusky, watching the entire event from the side of the Library of Congress, his expression unreadable. There was a loud buzzing noise, and everyone looked ahead to see that security was putting up the barricade.

"Drive! Drive! Drive!" Ben shouted at Abigail.

She saw the steadily rising barricade and shouted, "Oh, I don't _think_ so!" She gave the car an extra burst of speed, and with it, they just barely made it through, the barricade ripping off Abigail's back bumper in the process, and pushing the car's back wheels off the ground much higher than they should have been for a terrifying second, and then coming back to earth as they drove into the main roads and onto the highway. The police car behind them crashed into the barricade, getting completely totaled as they made their escape.

"That did _not_ turn out the way it was _supposed_ to!" Riley snapped at Ben as Abigail moved on the highway.

"How'd they find us so quickly?" Abigail asked as Letty helped pull her brother into the backseat of the car.

"I'll tell you how!" Riley said, "The president is a _tattletale!_"

"It was Sadusky." Letty said, and everyone (except Abigail, because she was looking at the road) looked at her, "I saw him, he was there. He knew more about the book than I thought he did." She turned to Ben, "The president must have told him the hiding place, so he knew exactly where we would go next."

"How'd the president feel about being kidnapped?" Abigail asked with a grin.

Ben took a moment to breathe, still very rattled up from their previous chase, and he said, "He was okay."

There was a pause before everyone started laughing. It wasn't because what Ben had said was that funny, but it was mostly because they were all relieved they didn't get caught and weren't being sent to jail.

Letty gasped as she suddenly realized their group was short a member, "Daddy! What about Dad?" She looked to Ben for an answer.

"Don't worry, I sent him to Mom for the plank translation." Ben said, "He should be meeting us at Mount Rushmore once he's done." Letty let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, good." She said. Riley looked back at her.

"You okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine." Letty replied, "All this excitement is just insane, though."

"Tell me about it." Ben muttered.

"_No_. _You_ got us into this mess, you shut up." Letty said, "You don't have the right to complain."

"I just moved up to the top of the FBI's most-wanted list, Letty. I think I have a right to complain." Ben replied. Letty stuck out her tongue at him immaturely, and he waved it off.

"So… to Mount Rushmore?" Riley asked.

"To Mount Rushmore." Ben said, "Abigail, would you drive us there?"

"My pleasure." Abigail said, although her tone suggested she was not looking forward to the long drive.

* * *

><p>They found a small motel near to Mount Rushmore, where they all split up between two rooms. Abigail and Letty were in one room, and Riley and Ben were in the one next to them, with Patrick to join them as soon as he was finished talking with Emily. They had packed some clothes and various necessary things ahead of time in preparation to run after Ben had kidnapped the president.<p>

When Patrick returned, he gave them the message that Emily had given him, "She confirmed it was in Mount Rushmore. She also said, _'Find where the moon touches the earth and release the hummingbird'_."

The next morning, they went up to the Mount Rushmore tourist center to look for the clues. Everyone stood out on the balcony, looking out at the mountain, looking for anything that might represent a hummingbird.

After a straight half hour of staring, they couldn't find anything useful. "I can't see anything that even _remotely_ resembles a hummingbird." Abigail sighed.

"That kinda looks like a turtle." He said, pointing at a small rock formation near one of the presidents' heads. Letty patted his back, thanking him for his effort, but it wasn't much good.

"The hummingbird… the earth, the moon…" Ben muttered, "It doesn't make any sense."

"No it doesn't." Patrick said in agreement.

"As if the clues ever do." Riley said sarcastically.

"Point taken." Letty agreed.

They went back inside, to look and see if there was any mention of a humming bird or the moon in the history of Mount Rushmore, because there were plenty of mentions of the earth already, they just needed to find something in connection to it. Patrick sighed as he walked around the place, "I don't even know what I'm looking for."

"Did Mom say anything else?" Ben asked, trying to figure out if his father left something out.

"Well, of course she had to remind me of all the sacrifices she made, that I didn't." Patrick said, not seeing how Ben and Letty's heads shot up at the mention of sacrifice.

"Sacrifice." Ben repeated.

"'Cause she was the one that stayed home with you and Letty when you were kids." Patrick explained, thinking Ben had asked a question.

"That's right." Ben said, coming upon a revelation.

"Son, I can't change the past," Patrick began.

"No, Dad, that's right." Ben said, interrupting him, "That's where the hummingbird comes from!"

"It was a story Mom would tell us when we were little," Letty said, "It was a Lakota myth about the hummingbird, Tanagila, the spirit of sacrifice."

"What does that have to do with the treasure?" Riley asked.

"Absolutely nothing." Ben replied.

"So, she gave me a false clue to send me on a wild goose chase?" Patrick asked.

"No, no, she wouldn't do that," Abigail said, "She knew the information was for Ben and not for you."

"Why that story?" Riley asked.

"She's trying to tell us something…" Ben muttered, "In the story, the hummingbird sacrifices itself to save the earth and the moon, which it believes is its family."

"'_Release the hummingbird_'…" Letty quoted, she looked up at Ben with wide eyes, "Ben, _Mom's_ the hummingbird! Wilkinson must have got her!" Ben sighed in aggravation.

"He's got her…" He muttered, "That guy doesn't know when to quit."

"We have to do something." Patrick said.

"Yeah, but what? We're not exactly armed _or_ dangerous." Riley said. Ben was silent for a moment before he pulled out his cellphone.

"I-I've got to turn myself in." He began dialing the number, but Letty reached out to stop him.

"Ben, no!" She said, he looked up at her and saw her determined expression, "Wilkinson has been playing us since this treasure hunt started. Now it's our turn." She closed his cellphone and handed it back to him.

"What are you suggesting, exactly?" Ben asked.

"Wilkinson doesn't know we're expecting him." Letty said, she let a small grin come onto her face, "So let's surprise him."

* * *

><p><strong>I have no excuse for this lateness, and I'm sorry. I tried to make up for it by making a scene to explain the hummingbird puzzle. It was part of a deleted scene, and I added some more to it. I hope it's good enough for you guys.<strong>


End file.
